Roman Britain

Roman Britain is a familiar topic on the primary curriculum and links chronologically to the Stone Age to Iron Age topic as well as the Saxons and Vikings.  The focus is upon invasion, conquest, rebellion and Romanisation.

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  • Trade – lifeblood of the empire: how trade affected life in Roman Britain

    Article

    The Ofsted Research Review: History highlights the importance of developing children’s understanding of key substantive concepts, ideas that are woven through historical content such as settlement, invasion, power. Children’s understanding grows more complex as they encounter these ideas in different contexts, enabling children to grow increasingly sophisticated schemas that support future...

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  • Teaching ‘these islands’ from prehistoric times to 1066

    Article

    The first aim in the National Curriculum indicates that children should: Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider...

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  • Developing a big picture of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

    Article

    ‘I have got to stop Mrs Jackson’s family arguing’: These were the words of a Year 3 pupil to her headteacher in reply to a simple question about what she was learning in history. What this pupil was doing was getting ‘a big picture’ of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and...

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  • Teaching the Romans in Britain: a study focusing on Hadrian’s Wall

    Article

    The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain is a unit of work in the Key Stage 2 history curriculum – and focusing on Hadrian’s Wall is one of the optional aspects suggested for study; although I would argue that the ‘successful invasion and conquest by Claudius’ aspect should be...

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  • Using apps in the history curriculum

    Article

    There are a lot of apps out there on multiple platforms and searching for ‘History’ does not really narrow anything down. Knowing which ones are useful, usable and worth paying for is often a case of trial and error. However, this list will save you trawling through the myriad of...

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  • One of my favourite history places: Chichester's Roman walls

    Article

    One of my favourite places to explore are the Roman walls that encircle the city of Chichester. The walls help to offer glimpses into the distant past and act as a constant reminder of the legacy left by the Roman Empire.

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  • Ordinary Roman life

    Article

    How do we make connections with past lives through authentic artefacts? My research evidence suggests that pupils do not really like having to imagine they are an evacuee or a Roman (for example), but do like engaging with and thinking about the reality of past lives. It has been surprising...

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  • One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall

    Article

    Choosing Hadrian’s Wall as one of my favourite places is a bit of a cheat really as it is a 73-mile-long (80 Roman miles) wall punctuated with a whole range of 20 individual sites each worth a visit; from mile castles and forts to desolate sections with fabulous views or...

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  • What confuses primary children in history...

    Article

    Young children who automatically see shiny things as new no matter what their age, those who mix up technology from one age with another, those who dismiss people in the past as stupid because they did not have the possessions we have today, those who equate the age of a...

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  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 70

    Article

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  • Developing enjoyable historical investigations

    Article

    About 2,000 years ago, a baby was born. No, not that baby. Not Jesus. This baby was a girl. Where she was born and what she was called we don't know but I'll call her Helena - it feels rude to go on just calling her ‘she'. When Helena grew up she became wealthy. Perhaps...

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  • Using the back cover image: Reconstructing the Romans

    Article

    Reconstruction drawings, diagrams and models are vital examples of interpretation that we can use to help pupils understand the past. On one level they help to fire imagination, while on another they offer a way of presenting important historical facts. The image overleaf is a reconstruction drawing of Chester's Roman...

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  • TREE-mendous history!

    Article

    Since the nineteenth century there has been a rich heritage of outdoor learning pedagogy in Europe, and today in Scandinavia the open air culture (frulitsliv) permeates Early Years education. In 1993 Bridgewater College nursery nurses returned from a visit to Denmark enthused by the outdoor educational settings and started their own ‘Forest School'. From 1995 the college...

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  • The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain

    Article

    Before the Romans arrived the islands which now make up Britain were populated with a variety of relatively large and small fortified or defended settlements. The people living here were usually part of tribes or clans and they probably raided each other's territory for cattle and other animals. The majority of people farmed in some way,...

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  • Place-names and the National Curriculum for History

    Article

    Place-names, such as house or school names, are infinite in number and all around us. Every place-name may convey a message about the place. Often place-names record and celebrate local and national people, events and incidents, define what a place looked like in the past and how we used to...

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  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 68

    Article

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  • Britain from the Iron Age to Robin Hood

    Article

    ‘...if children are to ever fully appreciate history the development of historical time has to be central to our teaching methodologies' This lesson aims to provide an overview of this period, developing pupils' sense of chronology and their understanding of cause and consequence. The context for these ideas comes from...

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  • The world on the wall: exploring diversity on Hadrian's Wall

    Article

    Built in AD 122 by the order of the Emperor Hadrian, the 73 mile (80 Roman miles) long frontier goes from Bownesson-Solway in Cumbria to Wallsend on the River Tyne. Since 1987, the area has been inscribed as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site....

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  • Political literacy: citizenship through the English national curriculum's the Romans in Britain study unit

    Article

    Hilary Claire raised fundamental issues about the relationship between History and Citizenship for the development of a sense of identity. Her paper stresses the importance of sceptical thinking, perspective, sequence and progression - the essential chronology that underpins pupil's education for citizenship in the timeframe that history provides...

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  • Roman Britain

    Article

    This classic pamphlet provides an introduction to Roman Britain, examines the political history, the institutions of Roman Britain, the economic background and the end of Roman Britain. IntroductionThe Roman conquest and occupation of Britain has long been taken as the conventional starting point of English History, and there is a conventional...

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