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.

Sort by: Date (Newest first) | Title A-Z
Show: All | Articles | Podcasts | Multipage Articles
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • Caesar lands

    Article

    Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here. The class had a clear objective - an understanding of Julius Caesar's landing in Britain, using Caesar's own account in translation...

    Click to view
  • Citizenship: The Romans in Britain study unit

    Article

    The english government has identified History in the national curriculum as one of the main vehicles for citizenship education. However, even if various issues in History exemplify citizenship concepts, learning about them during history lessons will not be sufficient to make the learning ‘citizenship education’. We have to move on...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • Dramatising Boudicca and the Celts

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links are outdated. The story of Boudicca lends itself equally well to both history and drama. As a key part of work on ‘The Romans', it is an example of how history and drama when used together can contribute to...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • 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.

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • Primary History 45

    Article

    04 Editorial 05 2006-2007 Historical Association History and ICT project — Alf Wilkinson 08 Citizenship: Citizenship through the English National Curriculum’s The Romans In Britain Study Unit — Hilary Claire 10 In my view: consigning history to the history books — Denis Hayes 11 Introducing history into the KS1 curriculum...

    Click to view
  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 68

    Article

    Click to view
  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 70

    Article

    Click to view
  • Questions and questioning exemplar: Roman Britain

    Article

    Using key questionsThe Romans in Britain was a lesson introducing Roman Britain to a Year 5 class.We started with the key question: 'What was Roman Britain like?' We had prepared group sets of pictures of aspects of Roman Britain. The images showed a range of scenes, e.g. cooking in a...

    Click to view
  • Roman Baths

    Article

    Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here. The account tells how we recreated a Roman bath house in the Reception/Year 1 classroom during a ten-week unit learning about...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • Roman market (KS1 or KS2)

    Article

    Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here. Shopping in a Roman townPart of 'The way of life of people who lived in the more distant past in Britain'....

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view
  • 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...

    Click to view