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History in the news: George Floyd protest in Bristol – Colston statue toppled
Primary History feature
The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May 2020 sparked off protests against the way in which black people are treated both in America and many countries across the world. Thousands of people attended an anti-racist demonstration in Bristol. A group of the...
History in the news: George Floyd protest in Bristol – Colston statue toppled
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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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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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Pupil voice: Democratising history lessons in Key Stage 1
Primary History article
Why is pupil voice important? Children are at the centre of everything we do and safeguarding their well-being and ensuring their progress across the curriculum is a key emphasis for schools. Recognising the importance of pupil voice in this is key.
Robin Alexander’s Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk (2017)...
Pupil voice: Democratising history lessons in Key Stage 1
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History and the early years: A view from the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
History gives colour and vitality to the curriculum. There are just so many engaging things to do. Without history there wouldn't be so much fun; whether in handling objects such as: the old wooden toys,...
History and the early years: A view from the classroom
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Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The issues surrounding the construction of a post-conflict history curriculum are complex. At its most basic level, the memory choice for a country emerging from mass violence is between remembering and forgetting, with...
Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
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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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One of my favourite history places: the Italian Chapel in Orkney
Primary History feature
One of my favourite places is the Italian Chapel on the tiny island of Lamb Holm on Orkney. It stands alone beside a concrete statue of St George, facing mainland Orkney across a stretch of water called Kirk Sound. It is approached from a road on a causeway which provides...
One of my favourite history places: the Italian Chapel in Orkney
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How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
Primary History article
How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
The Integrated Planning Process
Introduction - Rigour ‘v' enrichment. Despite loathing the term rigour, an empty word that has numerous definitions depending on who you speak to, many teachers, Head teachers and curriculum leaders are seeking ways of integrating and...
How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
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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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How should women’s history be included at Key Stage 3?
Teaching History article
Susanna Boyd ‘discovered’ women’s history while studying for her own history degree, and laments women’s continued absence from the school history curriculum. She issues a call-to-arms to make the curriculum more inclusive both by re-evaluating the criteria for curricular selection and by challenging established disciplinary conventions. She also weighs up...
How should women’s history be included at Key Stage 3?
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Confronting conflicts: history teachers’ reactions to spontaneous controversial remarks
Teaching History article
Sometimes, things don’t go to plan. Current events come into the classroom, especially the history classroom. How should students’ responses to current affairs be dealt with there? How should students’ desire to voice their opinions be handled if their opinion is unpopular. What if the student is simply wrong? How...
Confronting conflicts: history teachers’ reactions to spontaneous controversial remarks
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Investigating children's awareness of changing values and attitudes through stories written in the past
Primary History article
Talking about historical stories written at different times in the past can reveal much about the more sophisticated understandings that young children have of the past. Primary school children often work with artefacts, historic architecture and sites to enable them to visualise and reconstruct the past. However, these sources do...
Investigating children's awareness of changing values and attitudes through stories written in the past
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The QCA history scheme of work for Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
QCA's scheme of work for history at Key Stage 3, together with similar schemes for other subjects, has been published in response to widespread requests for more guidance on curriculum planning. Heather Richardson, Subject Officer (history)...
The QCA history scheme of work for Key Stage 3
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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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One of my favourite history places: Chichester's Roman walls
Primary History feature
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.
One of my favourite history places: Chichester's Roman walls
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Super history teaching on the Superhighway: the Internet for beginners
Article
Isobel Jenkins and Mike Turpin answer some of those basic questions which many history teachers are afraid to ask, like ‘What exactly is it anyway?' and ‘Is this really worth my valuable time?' They outline the internet's value as a means of improving information access and as a way of...
Super history teaching on the Superhighway: the Internet for beginners
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History using information technology: past, present and future
Article
Alaric Dickinson gives an overview of recent developments in the teaching of history using ICT and relates these to different contexts. He examines the appeal of the History Using IT materials and places these in the context of earlier developments. He also considers the role of ICT in the context...
History using information technology: past, present and future
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Women and space: reaching for the stars
Primary History article
The exploration of the heavens has drawn mankind since the dawn of time. Vast monuments reached to the stars marked with astrological key points. Astronomers sought to understand the movement of the universe. Since the twentieth century however this investigation has moved into space itself, pioneered by restless and inquisitive souls...
Women and space: reaching for the stars
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Children's ideas about school history and why they matter
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Richard Harris and Terry Haydn recently carried out research funded by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority into pupils' views and beliefs about history. Whilst the overall results were very encouraging (and more so than earlier,...
Children's ideas about school history and why they matter
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Cunning Plan 163.2: Developing an A-level course in medieval history
Teaching History feature
Medieval history has always been a Cinderella era for post-16 students. Some schools offer A-levels in classical civilisation, but most A-level history courses focus on the early-modern and modern periods. A few schools teach an A-level medieval module, with the Crusades being a popular choice. I was therefore excited at...
Cunning Plan 163.2: Developing an A-level course in medieval history
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Using causation diagrams to help sixth-formers think about cause and effect
Teaching History article
Alex Alcoe was concerned that mastery of certain keywords and question formulae at GCSE perhaps obscured fundamental gaps in his students’ understanding of the nature of causation. These gaps were revealed when he invited Year 12 students to make explicit, by annotating a diagram, their understanding of the relationship between...
Using causation diagrams to help sixth-formers think about cause and effect
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Five stones in St Albans: life in Verulamium
Historian article
In this article, based on a prize winning essay for the Historical Association’s Young Historian competition, Alice Finnie explores aspects of the important Roman town of Verulamium, on the site of the modern city of St Albans. Her focus is on five stones that survive from the Roman period. She...
Five stones in St Albans: life in Verulamium
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Hearts, minds and souls: Exploring values through history
Teaching History article
Steve Illingworth argues that moral and intellectual development are not merely linked in the learning of history, but that moral development is a fitting goal for the study of history in its own right. He provides practical examples of ways of getting pupils to reflect on questions of right and...
Hearts, minds and souls: Exploring values through history
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New, Novice or Nervous? 173: including BME history in the curriculum
The quick guide to the ‘no-quick-fix’
This page is for those new to the published writings of history teachers. Each problem you wrestle with, other teachers have wrestled with too. Quick fixes don’t exist. But in others’ writing, you’ll find something better: conversations in which history teachers have debated or tackled your problems – conversations which any history teacher...
New, Novice or Nervous? 173: including BME history in the curriculum
