-
Ideas for Assemblies: A slightly different view of remembrance
Primary History feature
The principle of this assembly is to show that positive events and developments can occur in the worst times and events of human history. To begin with, it is vital to ensure that the children (and staff!) know and understand that the First World War was not a good thing for...
Ideas for Assemblies: A slightly different view of remembrance
-
Elizabethan times: Just banquets and fun?
Primary History article
Although much of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum relates to the period before 1066, we are expected to include 'a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066' (DfE, 2013,p.5)
This raises two questions:a) How can a post-1066 topic be related...
Elizabethan times: Just banquets and fun?
-
Triumphs Show 138: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle
Teaching History feature
Licking the stones: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle in 360 degrees
This is the story of one history department that, in collaboration with a local historical site, embarked on a ‘curriculum co-development project' with the art department. The aim was to use learning experiences outside the classroom to bring...
Triumphs Show 138: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle
-
Having 'Great Expectations' of Year 9
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What scope does studying a classic novel in both English and history provide for meaningful cross-curricular work and how might engaging with historical fiction help pupils engage more effectively with the realities of the past?...
Having 'Great Expectations' of Year 9
-
Disciplining cross-curricularity?
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Why should we think in inter-disciplinary rather than cross-curricular terms when planning collaborative work with colleagues in other subjects? What scope is there for working in inter-disciplinary ways and what is the value of such...
Disciplining cross-curricularity?
-
What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 2
Primary History article
Part 1 of this article looked at some of the main areas of confusion that often characterise primary pupils’ historical thinking. Part 2 continues this theme by looking at three more key areas of misunderstanding and possible strategies to help improve their understanding:
Confusion 4: Not really grasping how sources can be...
What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 2
-
Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
Primary History article
The Key Stage 2 Primary History Curriculum sets ambitious challenges for pupils: "…They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge...
Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
-
My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
Historian feature
Maggie Wilson whets our appetite for exploration of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile runs between the Castle and Holyrood Palace. In addition to these and other well-known sites such as St Giles Cathedral, John Knox’s house, the Canongate Tolbooth and Canongate Kirk, and stories of Deacon Brodie, David Hume, James Boswell, Robert Burns and, obviously,...
My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
-
Ideas for Assemblies: Women in parliament
Article
A fundamental part of British values is our democracy. The system theoretically gives people equal rights because everyone is entitled to one vote that has the same value when placed in the ballot box. The progress made with regards to equal suffrage is an important aspect of teaching about democracy...
Ideas for Assemblies: Women in parliament
-
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...
One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall
-
M&S brings over 130 years of archives into your classroom
Article
There is something really magical about making your own discoveries. Investigating something sparked by your own curiosity and using your own skills of observation and deduction to find out more is exciting. Human beings have always wanted to find out about our history and our place in the world –...
M&S brings over 130 years of archives into your classroom
-
Polychronicon 168: Interwar internationalisms
Teaching History feature
Research on the inter war years (1919-39) has exploded in recent years. Led by exciting studies of global and international institutions by Susan Pedersen, Patricia Clavin and Mark Mazower, historians have moved beyond narrowly political and diplomatic accounts of the leading personalities and agencies attached to key institutions such as...
Polychronicon 168: Interwar internationalisms
-
Move Me On 168: teaching exam classes
Teaching History feature
Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical help to all involved in training new history teachers.
This issue’s problem: Robert Nivelle is nearing the end of his first (relatively long)...
Move Me On 168: teaching exam classes
-
Designing end-of-year exams: trials and tribulations
Teaching History article
Since the decline of the National Curriculum Level Descriptions, schools in England have been asked to design their own forms of assessment at Key Stage 3. This had led to a great deal of creativity, but also a number of challenges. In this article Matt Stanford reflects on his department’s...
Designing end-of-year exams: trials and tribulations
-
King James’s Book of Sports, 1617
Historian article
Forty years after his higher degree research into the history of sport, Trevor James explores the much wider context in which that research now stands.
Four hundred years ago, in 1617, James I made a decisive intervention into the simmering debate which had existed since the puritanical upsurge in Queen...
King James’s Book of Sports, 1617
-
My Favourite History Place: Hadrian’s Wall
Historian 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...
My Favourite History Place: Hadrian’s Wall
-
A tale of two statues
Historian article
Dave Martin relates how the statue of one of our imperial ‘heroes’ prompted a campaign to have it taken down while the statue of another imperial ‘hero’ prompted a fund-raising campaign for its repair.
As the tide of Empire ebbed across the globe vestiges of British rule remained, some great,...
A tale of two statues
-
Terriers in India
Historian Article
Peter Stanley is working on the largely unexplored history of the thousands of British Territorial soldiers who served in India during the First World War using their letters and diaries. He is trying to discover what happened to these men when they returned to Britain. Did their service in India...
Terriers in India
-
‘Not again!’ - an additional viewpoint on using railways
Primary History article
‘Not again!’ I can remember my son muttering as his football thudded against the kitchen wall, ‘I went there in Year 2 and then in Year 4 and now I have to go there again in Year 6.’ He was referring to his school trips to the remains of the gunpowder factories in our village,...
‘Not again!’ - an additional viewpoint on using railways
-
Did all Ancient Greek women stay at home and weave?
Primary History article
We tend to focus on the bigger picture in teaching on the Ancient Greeks – democracy; Olympic Games; architecture; theatre; myths and legends – but children love the minutiae of everyday life. And half of the population of Ancient Greece was female. So just what part in life did women play? And how different was it to that of men?...
Did all Ancient Greek women stay at home and weave?
-
How technology has changed our lives
Primary History article
This article links teaching about Sir Tim Berners-Lee to Changes in Living Memory and Significant Individuals and makes comparisons between Caxton and the impact of earlier developments in communications technology.
It provides interesting topics for discussion about significance (pupils may be surprised by the idea that they are living through an exciting period of history at the moment). It even has the...
How technology has changed our lives
-
Active remembrance
Teaching History article
A year after the end of the First World War, George V stated: "I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of the Great Deliverance and those who laid down their lives to achieve it."
From that moment, the idea of large-scale remembrance...
Active remembrance
-
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s journey
Historian article
Danielle E.A. Park takes us on a journey across the Pyrenees and Alps with a redoubtable woman.
Eleanor of Aquitaine has acquired a reputation as something of a femme fatale. Her considerable inheritance of Aquitaine, marriages to two kings, the allegations of an affair with her uncle Raymond of Poitiers,...
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s journey
-
My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
Historian feature
Waterloo station may not be an obvious choice for a favourite history place. It is big. It is busy. It’s a place that people pass through rather than linger. Yet its story is interesting. If time permits, an hour spent exploring is a rewarding experience.
Passengers first used Waterloo in...
My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
-
Beyond tokenism: diverse history post-14
Teaching History Article
Nick Dennis shows how a ‘multidirectional memory’ approach to teaching history can move history teachers beyond seeing black history as separate or distracting from the history that must be aught at examination level. He gives examples of ways in which a diverse history can be built into examination courses, strengthening...
Beyond tokenism: diverse history post-14
