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Primary History summer resource 2026: Non-fiction in the history classroom
Primary member resource
‘Print reading matters’: this is one of the conclusions of the National Literacy Trust (NLT) report. Research has shown that print reading is still central to most children’s reading experiences, especially within school. It also shows that confidence and strong reading skills in print reading underpin effective reading across all formats. Those who...
Primary History summer resource 2026: Non-fiction in the history classroom
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My Favourite History Place: Swarkestone Bridge
Historian feature
Trevor James reveals his continued fascination with this major Midland scheduled monument.
Almost 40 years ago, my role as a Nottingham University extra-mural tutor took me to Melbourne in Derbyshire. For the first few weeks I followed a cross-country route to Melbourne, via Burton-upon-Trent, Woodville and Hartshorne, but, on a dark November...
My Favourite History Place: Swarkestone Bridge
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Planning a history unit of work from scratch
Primary History article
In this article, Rachel wrestles with one of the greatest challenges facing teachers. With the starting point maybe no more than a title or mass of content, how do you begin the process of formulating an exciting and worthwhile teaching programme? It aims to give some tips and ideas to...
Planning a history unit of work from scratch
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Developing a love of history through historical fiction
Primary History article
In this article, Steven Kenyon reminds us of the importance of historical fiction as part of good primary history. He examines its current role and, in this National Year of Reading, identifies a few of the best examples that can enhance the teaching of history, covering EYFS right up to...
Developing a love of history through historical fiction
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Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
Primary History article
Recognising that most schools deliver history as separate units that are then divided into themes, Nick Mackintosh argues that this means a lack of a narrative thread, which can result in children struggling to analyse it effectively. A thematic history curriculum is much better at developing children’s understanding of chronology,...
Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
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Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
Primary History article
In this article, Jo identifies a rationale for learning about this civilisation and addresses some of the ways it can be taught, especially with older primary children. It includes a comparative enquiry with Anglo-Saxons. She also highlights how recent research has developed a greater understanding of the Maya and, at...
Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
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Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
Historian article
In the pre-modern world, the ability to speak and to hear were fundamental to participation in civil society. How, then, could prelingual deaf people survive and thrive? Rosamund Oates, author of the recently published Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England, charts the long struggle for the recognition of sign...
Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
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Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
Historian article
Throughout history, war has been one of the great producers of disability, and the disabled veteran has often provoked feelings of pride and pity. In this article, Christopher Thomas Goodwin explores the multiple meanings of the disabled soldier in Nazi Germany...
Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
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Teaching History 185: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 185: Missing stories
In their prologue to What is History Now? (published earlier this year to mark the 60th anniversary of E.H. Carr’s seminal work), Helen Carr and Susannah Lipscomb both admit to owning a ruler of rulers: a list of monarchs of Britain from the year...
Teaching History 185: Out now
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In conversation with David Turner
Historian feature
Disabled people have always been present in Britain’s past. Yet they have often appeared only at the edge of historical narratives: as recipients of charity, as objects of medical attention, as casualties of war or work, or as figures in stories told by institutions rather than by themselves. In Disability:...
In conversation with David Turner
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Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
Primary History article
Children in nursery and reception classes do not, of course, learn history. They meet the subject for the first time when they start Year 1. However, what children learn – and how they learn – in EYFS is important for preparing them to learn history. This goes beyond building knowledge...
Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
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Making substantive concepts (do the) work
Teaching History article
Several years back, Alistair Dickins and Tommy-James Alexander realised they wanted to incorporate explicit consideration of substantive concepts into their Key Stage 3 teaching, to enable students to make sense of and order information about the past and to offer students a usable language that would support their historical reasoning. In reality,...
Making substantive concepts (do the) work
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Using the concept of place to help Year 9 students to visualise the complexities of the Holocaust
Teaching History article
Inspired by the work of the social and cultural historian Tim Cole, Stuart Farley decided to look again at the way he teaches the Holocaust. He wanted to focus on the geographical concept of place as a way of enabling his Year 9 students to build far more diverse narratives,...
Using the concept of place to help Year 9 students to visualise the complexities of the Holocaust
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Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
Historian feature
In this article, Rob Pritchard reflects on his long-standing engagement with the Black Country Living Museum, exploring how visits to this ‘living history’ site transformed his approach to teaching history...
Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
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What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
Primary History article
In this article, Karin Doull examines some characteristic features of the Indus Valley Civilisation and considers what these might tell us about this fascinating, less well-known empire...
What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
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Doing history: A historian in the Round Tower
Historian feature
In this article Michael McLaughlin explains how he felt quite intimidated initially at the prospect of visiting the Royal Archives in the ‘fortress’ of Windsor Castle. However his research there proved to be both enjoyable and productive, as he discovered fascinating insights into the royal visit to Plymouth at the height...
Doing history: A historian in the Round Tower
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Primary History 89: Out now
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Read Primary History 89
Welcome to Primary History 89! It is always a joy to work with people who share a love of history, and who engage with history learning and teaching in so many different ways. One of the things I love is everyone’s willingness to share their knowledge,...
Primary History 89: Out now
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The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
Historian article
As we approach the centenary of Britain’s only national general strike, this article by Steve Illingworth tells the story of a successful local sympathetic strike in Salford in 1911. He analyses the reasons for the success of the Salford workers and considers why this kind of concerted industrial action could...
The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
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Hiding in plain sight: an eighteenth-century portrait of an Inca leader
Historian article
In this article, Emily C. Floyd explores a rare eighteenth-century self-commissioned engraved portrait of an elite Indigenous man in colonial Lima. By comparing this unassuming image with a more overtly Inca portrait, the article reveals how Indigenous leaders navigated identity, loyalty, and colonial restrictions, using portraiture to assert agency in...
Hiding in plain sight: an eighteenth-century portrait of an Inca leader
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Ancient Sumer
Primary History article
For many teachers and children alike, Ancient Sumer will be completely new. Although Sumer has always been an option for teaching about Early Civilisations, the fame of Ancient Egypt, as well as being a tried-and-tested topic, has meant that Sumer has perhaps been overlooked. There is little danger of failing...
Ancient Sumer
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Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
Historian article
The later medieval period can often be seen as a time of bitter ideological and military conflict between Christians and Muslims. In this article Paola Laviola tells the story of the southern Italian city of Lucera, where occasional religious division was interspersed with periods of toleration between faiths that allowed...
Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
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Primary History 89
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Editorial (Read article for free)
06 HA Update
08 How have schools interpreted the new EYFS Framework – including the introduction of the ‘Past and Present’ ELG? – Simon Ellis and Mackay Howe (Read article)
12 Teaching ‘these islands’ from prehistoric times to 1066 – Paul Bracey (Read article)
20...
Primary History 89
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To see the witch: understanding the European witch craze through visual art
Historian article
During the European witch craze, visual art played a powerful role in shaping belief in witches. The printing press allowed images of witchcraft to circulate widely, amplifying fear and suspicion. In this article, Natasha Brockman explores how such imagery did more than illustrate witchcraft: it helped create it, teaching people what witches...
To see the witch: understanding the European witch craze through visual art
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Exploring a logical conceptualisation of continuity with Year 9 pupils
Teaching History article
As a PGCE student, Miles Eades confronted the challenge of teaching about change and continuity. Reflecting on scientific, mathematical and sociological conceptualisations of change as a constantly occurring process led him to reconsider the common characterisation of continuity in history as the opposite of or absence of change. Eades set...
Exploring a logical conceptualisation of continuity with Year 9 pupils
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Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
Historian feature
This article examines how the Wars of the Roses have been remembered through memorials and presents the Battlefields Trust’s Wars of the Roses Memorial Database Project, launched in 2023. The open-access, crowd-sourced database maps monuments, plaques, battlefield markers and local commemorations linked to the conflicts. David Grummitt shows that remembrance...
Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
