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Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
Primary History article
Decoding a manuscript, exploring glittering archaeology, imagining the emotions and sensations of a battle, and learning Old English vocabulary. These are all tasks that we, as teachers of medieval literature in the English Department at King’s College London, have assigned to our undergraduate classes.
However, Key Stage 2 children can...
Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
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‘This extract is no good, Miss!’
Journal article
Frustrated that her A-level students were being overly dismissive when asked to judge the convincingness of academic historians’ arguments, Paula Worth drew on previous history-teacher research and theories of history for inspiration. After noting that her students would unjustly reject esteemed historians’ accounts for lack of comprehensiveness, Worth explains here...
‘This extract is no good, Miss!’
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An Investigation into Finding Effective Ways of Presenting a Written Source to Students
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 15, Number 1 – Autumn/Winter 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
Written historical sources can be quite challenging for students to analyse in secondary school. They are sometimes long and tedious to read as well as containing difficult and awkward text. The presentation of...
An Investigation into Finding Effective Ways of Presenting a Written Source to Students
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My Favourite History Place - All Saint's Church, Harewood
Historian feature
Harewood House, a few miles north of Leeds, attracts many historically-minded visitors to enjoy the work of Adam, Chippendale and Capability Brown but to my mind the real treasures of Harewood lie elsewhere. After negotiating the payment booths take the path immediately on your right, leading to the redundant church...
My Favourite History Place - All Saint's Church, Harewood
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Out and About: Newcastle’s 1650 Witch Trial
Historian feature
A.D. Bergin’s research for a work of historical fiction led him to Newcastle, where one of the largest witch trials in English history took place in 1650. Despite the scale of the proceedings, the event remains much less well known than the infamous Pendle trials or Matthew Hopkins’ East Anglian witch hunts.
Out and About: Newcastle’s 1650 Witch Trial
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Cunning Plan 173: using Black Tudors as a window into Tudor England
Teaching History journal feature
On 29 September 2018 I was fortunate enough to get involved with a collaborative project with Dr Miranda Kaufmann, the Historical Association, Schools History Project, and a brilliant group of people from different backgrounds all committed to teaching about black Tudors. In this short piece, I will share how I...
Cunning Plan 173: using Black Tudors as a window into Tudor England
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Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
Historian article
Kateryna Petrova explores the history and evolution of street art, especially graffiti and murals in Ukraine from the Soviet era to the present day. She traces the transformation of street art from a forbidden and persecuted activity to one coordinated with city authorities and embraced by the public. She also...
Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
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A History of the World: 100 objects that tell a story
Primary History article
‘A History of the World in 100 Objects' was the most creative, imaginative and dynamic development in primary History Education for thirty years. It ties in perfectly with and supports the government's draft NC for History...
A History of the World: 100 objects that tell a story
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Teaching History 126: Outside the Classroom
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
06 ‘I understood before, but not like this:’ maximising historical learning by letting pupils take control of trips – Helen Snelson (Read article)
12 A search beyond the classroom: using a museum to support the renewal of a scheme of work – Hannah Moloney and Paula Kitching (Read article)
20...
Teaching History 126: Outside the Classroom
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Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial
03 HA Secondary News
04 Drilling down: how one history department is working towards progression in pupils’ thinking about diversity across Years 7, 8 and 9 – Matthew Bradshaw (Read article)
13 Cunning Plan: The generalisation game - challenging generalisations (Read article)
16 Were industrial towns ‘death-traps’? Year...
Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
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Move Me On 179: Supporting new history teachers in a lockdown
The problem page for history mentors
This issue’s problem: The closure of school buildings (to most pupils) in March this year brought an abrupt end to the normal opportunities for history trainees’ learning in school.
Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It...
Move Me On 179: Supporting new history teachers in a lockdown
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My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
Historian feature
Wakefield Bridge Chapel, by the River Calder, is thought by many to be the finest of four bridge chantries, the others being Bradford-on-Avon, Derby and Rotherham. The chapel at Wakefield was originally founded and endowed by the people of Wakefield and district between 1342 and 1359.
In 1397 Edmund de Langley,...
My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
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Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
Teaching History article
Sarah Jackson-Buckley and Jessie Phillips found themselves perennially dissatisfied with the outcomes of their teaching of the Protestant Reformation. Determined that students should take away a sense of the momentous political and social consequences of the Reformation, they turned to historical scholarship, and to the work of other history teachers on...
Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
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Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
Historian article
Fiona Edmonds evidences the enduring links between Brittany and Britain throughout the early Middle Ages.
Every year many thousands of British holidaymakers travel to Brittany in search of beaches, bisque and bonhomie. As they board the ferry, they may notice that they are travelling from one Bretagne to another. The names...
Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
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Primary History 39
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Pupils’ reviews
05 Editorial
06 Primary Noticeboard
08 In My View: why should we continue to learn about the Second World War? — Dan Phillips
11 The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany — Russell Gray (Read article)
14 When we were...
Primary History 39
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The Historian 167: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 167: Science
2025 is a memorable year for scientific anniversaries: it is 350 years since the foundation of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; 200 years since the start of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and Michael Faraday’s discovery of benzine; and for the contemporary historians among our...
The Historian 167: Out now
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'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As a pre-Plowden primary teacher who queued to get my copy of that report in 1967 and as a contributory author to the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2009) forty-two years later I can claim, not an...
'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
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Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
Historian article
Ongoing interdisciplinary developments have cast light on the surprisingly sophisticated world of Viking-age and medieval Scandinavian law and its wide-ranging influence in these societies.
In many ways, the Viking Age and its inhabitants are more familiar than ever before. From video games to television and films, new narrative frontiers and bigger...
Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
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Bridging the gap: supporting early career teachers’ professional development as history teachers
Teaching History article
Kate Hawkey and Helen Snelson, who have both worked for many years in initial teacher education, wanted to find ways of supporting recently qualified teachers in continuing to develop their practice. Working in two different parts of the country, they established different kinds of informal, but well-focused history-specific, support groups....
Bridging the gap: supporting early career teachers’ professional development as history teachers
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Year 7 explore the story of a London street
Teaching History article
One street, twenty children and the experience of a changing town: Year 7 explore the story of a London street
Michael Wood and others have recently drawn attention to the ways in which big stories can be told through local histories. Hughes and De Silva report a teaching unit through...
Year 7 explore the story of a London street
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How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
Teaching History article
In March 2020, when Covid-19’s lockdown restrictions saw schools closed to the majority of children, Carenza Lewis quickly began thinking of ways to help both teachers and parents. Drawing on extensive experience of enabling children and young people to learn from practical engagement in archaeology, she came up with a...
How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
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New, Novice or Nervous? 166: Controversial issues
Teaching History feature
History thrives on questioning, debate and controversy. What makes something controversial varies, however, and we may fail to notice, unless we think very carefully about it, the particular ways in which our lessons can become controversial for our pupils.
When we tackle historical issues that might be seen as controversial, disturbing, shocking or...
New, Novice or Nervous? 166: Controversial issues
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Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial comment: Pupil reading of written and printed texts is a central element in their ‘Doing History'. As such, it is one of numerous integrated pedagogic activities that combine to make up a lesson, a series...
Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
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Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
Article
Students of A-level history are required to analyse and evaluate historical interpretations. Samuel Head found limitations in his Year 13 students’ understanding of how and why historians arrive at differing interpretations, which impeded their ability to analyse them. He set about tackling this with carefully sequenced planning and a processual model...
Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
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Happy and Glorious: exploring and celebrating the Platinum Jubilee
Primary History article
History is full of significant royals, yet few seem quite so remarkable as Her Majesty the Queen. Since her birth in 1926, she has witnessed the tragedy of a world war, the decline of the British Empire and the birth of the Commonwealth of Nations. Not only is she the...
Happy and Glorious: exploring and celebrating the Platinum Jubilee
