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Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
Primary History article
The EYFS framework places a key emphasis on the value of giving children rich encounters with stories and picture books. With World Book Day just around the corner, this article suggests how a focus on children’s illustrators could be used to develop children’s understanding of ‘past and present’...
Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
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Teaching the history of women in Europe in the twentieth-century
Teaching History article
This article is based on Ruth Tudor’s book. The book is the collaborative result of a series of seminars and discussions which involved educators throughout Europe. Written with 14-19 year olds in mind, the approach explores how it is possible to investigate, to exploit to provide new insights and to...
Teaching the history of women in Europe in the twentieth-century
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Lyndon Johnson & Albert Gore: Southern New Dealers and the Modern South
Historian article
Lyndon Johnson and Albert Gore were elected to Congress within a year of each other in 1937-38. They were elected in the old style of patronage-oriented southern Democratic Party politics in which a plethora of candidates, with few issues to divide them, contested primary elections. Both circumvented the local county...
Lyndon Johnson & Albert Gore: Southern New Dealers and the Modern South
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Music in the History Curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated.
In a primary school in Devon, there is a teacher who sings to his class every day: traditional songs; love songs; lyrical ballads; sea shanties; tales of mystery and suspense; songs of ritual and ceremony, hunting songs,...
Music in the History Curriculum
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Teaching History 155: Teaching About WW1
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial
03 HA Secondary News
04 HA Update
08 Rachel Foster - A world turned molten: helping Year 9 to explore the cultural legacies of the First World War (Read article)
20 Mary Brown and Carolyn Massey - Teaching ‘the lesson of satire': using The Wipers Times to build...
Teaching History 155: Teaching About WW1
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The legacy of ancient Sumer
Primary History article
Ancient Sumer was a fascinating civilisation that flourished at the same time as other key ancient civilisations. It is credited with having developed vital elements of technology such as the potter’s wheel, written language, complex mathematical concepts that are still used today and much else. This article focuses on the...
The legacy of ancient Sumer
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Exploring the history of space
Primary History article
Children have long been captivated by the idea of space exploration and this year marks the anniversary of several significant events, including the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency and the 10th anniversary of Tim Peake’s launch to the International Space Station. In this article, Kate Rigby explores how...
Exploring the history of space
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Active learners: classroom strategies for enhancing history teaching
Primary History article
Lindsey Rawes has provided a range of activities which she uses with children to engage them in developing their historical knowledge and understanding. She has included retrieval practice, engaging children as detectives when looking at artefacts, and evaluating the understanding of historical questions through card sorts, considering similarities and differences, and using...
Active learners: classroom strategies for enhancing history teaching
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'Which was more important Sir, ordinary people getting electricity or the rise of Hitler?' Using Ethel and Ernest with Year 9
Teaching History article
Mike Murray offers further new perspectives on the relationship between overview and depth in pupils’ historical learning. In an account of his teaching with Raymond Briggs’ Ethel and Ernest to a ‘below-average ability’ class in Year 9, he constructs a rationale for using this moving strip cartoon to motivate, intrigue...
'Which was more important Sir, ordinary people getting electricity or the rise of Hitler?' Using Ethel and Ernest with Year 9
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She sells seashells by the seashore: teaching Mary Anning at Key Stage 1
Primary History article
Mary Anning was a fascinating individual who would be a purposeful addition to a history curriculum. This article outlines the rationale behind including her as a significant individual but also offers ideas for developing young children’s understanding of historical interpretations.
She sells seashells by the seashore: teaching Mary Anning at Key Stage 1
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Animals who help us: teaching past and present in EYFS
Primary History article
Remembrance Day is a useful time to explore with EYFS pupils the people who help us. But of course animals also play a part in human conflicts. This article explores animals who have helped us in wartime now and in the past. The article includes useful teaching ideas and picture...
Animals who help us: teaching past and present in EYFS
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Student teacher experiences at the Historical Association Conference 2025
Primary History article
Three student teachers from Liverpool John Moores University had the chance to attend the recent Historical Association Conference held at the Hilton in Liverpool. In this article, they outline the sessions and the benefits of attending, focusing on the sessions that they found most useful. The next conference is being...
Student teacher experiences at the Historical Association Conference 2025
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Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
Primary History article
In this article Karin Doull looks at the 165th anniversary of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Our treatment of our most popular pets is reflective of society in a given time and Karin highlights several ways in which the history of Battersea can be used to spotlight different aspects of...
Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
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Who were the Greeks and how diverse was their society?
Primary History article
Susie Townsend explores ancient Greece through the use of maps in this innovative and interesting article. The focus here is on diversity within ancient Greek civilisations and the article includes some activities to support learning. There is something for everyone to take from this piece.
Who were the Greeks and how diverse was their society?
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The Brontë sisters: teaching local history through a focus on one remarkable family
Primary History article
Lorna Spencer’s focus on the Brontë sisters as a significant local family provides an insight into both their lives and their challenges, and how far these can be compared with those of different classes of people in the locality. Their experiences can also be related to wider issues, such as...
The Brontë sisters: teaching local history through a focus on one remarkable family
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Teaching ‘changes within living memory’: making the most of your school
Primary History article
The Key Stage 1 curriculum requires an exploration of changes within living memory, and what better way to do this than discovering the history of your own school! In this article, Helen Crawford and Sandra Kirkland provide guidance and suggested activities to explore change and continuity in your own locality. ...
Teaching ‘changes within living memory’: making the most of your school
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Planning for 'Changes within Living Memory'
Primary History article
While changes to the Key Stage 1 subject content are not as extensive as Key Stage 2 it is necessary to be aware of the changing emphasis within the different themes. ‘Changes within Living Memory' has a couple of key issues to be aware of. First, ‘living memory' refers to...
Planning for 'Changes within Living Memory'
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Teaching History 59
The HA's journal for history teachers
Articles:
History and Economic Awareness in the National Curriculum - David Kerr
Deconstruction to Reconstruction: Women's History through Local History - Dave Welbourne
Keeping the Past under Review - Linda Vitagliano and Peter Lim
History as Ethnography: a Pyschological Evaluation of a Theatre in Education Project - George Shand, Rosemary Linnell and Derek...
Teaching History 59
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Contribute an Article to The Historian
Contribute
The Historian is the journal of the Historical Association that is for all our general members and for teacher members who want a little bit of extra subject knowledge.
Containing a mixture of themed articles, regular features and general interest, the journal comes out four times a year. Articles are...
Contribute an Article to The Historian
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Significant anniversaries: The Bristol Bus Boycott, 1963
Primary History article
It is sixty years since the Bristol Bus Boycott highlighted race inequalities and discrimination in the workplace. In this article, Stuart Boydell revisits this watershed moment and considers how the Bristol Bus Boycott could be incorporated into the curriculum today.
Sixty years ago, Bristol was at the centre of a...
Significant anniversaries: The Bristol Bus Boycott, 1963
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Exploring the many aspects of neolithic Britain
Primary History article
The Neolithic period provides many challenges – the huge length of time, the limitations of evidence, the many different aspects. This article suggests how a teaching programme might be structured to explore the period. It promotes the idea that these people, so distant in time, were much as we are...
Exploring the many aspects of neolithic Britain
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Different ways of teaching local history through significant individuals
Primary History article
It is commonplace to include significant people when looking at the history of a given locality. The Historical Association has a series of case studies of significant local individuals organised by counties or regions. In this article Tim Lomas builds on that resource by looking at the way such individuals...
Different ways of teaching local history through significant individuals
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1906-2006 One Hundred Years of the Historical Association
The Historian 91
4 Foreword - Lady Antonia Fraser
6 Swanning around - Jeremy Paterson
10 A Parade of Past Presidents 1906-82 - Donald Read
24 The Norton Medlicott Medal - Bill Speck
30 For Short Time an Endless Monument: The Shifting History of a Familiar London Landmark - Lisa Jardine
38 Wise...
1906-2006 One Hundred Years of the Historical Association
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Developing disciplinary knowledge: how and why castles and forts developed
Primary History article
Disciplinary knowledge is often identified as a key area of development by subject leaders. In this article, Susie Townsend explores the concepts of change, continuity and causation through the lens of forts and castles. Emphasizing the importance of enquiry, she provides a range of historical activities that could be used in...
Developing disciplinary knowledge: how and why castles and forts developed
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Little coins, big histories
Primary History article
In this article, Damienne Clarke examines how coins can be used as a focus for history teaching and learning in Key Stage One. She describes the emergence of coins from older systems of bartering, as well as their role as tokens of commemoration for significant people and events. This article provides...
Little coins, big histories
