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Archaeology: A view from the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated.
Perhaps it is the earthiness of the ground beneath our feet which arouses pupils' curiosity. Or maybe, the idea of the unexpected with the hope of finding something precious or unusual, that is so engaging about archaeology....
Archaeology: A view from the classroom
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A classroom museum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated
Museums are memory boxes. They contain artefacts that tell stories about people in the past. The creation of a class museum is a simple and effective way of bringing the past to life through investigation,...
A classroom museum
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Case Study: Investigating a picture in Key Stage 1
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The teacher, Angela, brought from home a large coloured picture: in the middle a photograph of her grandfather in uniform, taken in 1917. The reading of the picture produced a flood of writing...
Case Study: Investigating a picture in Key Stage 1
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A Beginner's Guide to using visual image in primary schools
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The employment of the visual image is a fascinating and exciting way to enable children to gain a glimpse into the past. It is problematic, however, in that such imagery is often an...
A Beginner's Guide to using visual image in primary schools
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Think Bubble 49: Frozen moments
Primary History article
Whenever I look at an old sepia photograph or one of those amazing 19th century genre pictures like William Powell Frith's Ramsgate Sands, it is not the immediate images that grab my attention. Although the detail is often remarkable, in the case of Ramsgate Sands the attentive mother gently introducing...
Think Bubble 49: Frozen moments
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In my view: Using Pictures
Primary History article
Children grow up surrounded by pictures - moving pictures on the TV, still advertisements on hoardings, pictures in newspapers and magazines and comic books. ‘The media' are ever present, and so we assume that our children are visually literate - wise eyed. When we see them flicking through books ‘looking...
In my view: Using Pictures
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Think Bubble 48: Lighting fires
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
I have a very old photo in my ‘archive' taken in the 1970s of a much-younger me dressed in, what can only be described as, a vague suggestion of 18th Century costume - thread-bare jacket, a...
Think Bubble 48: Lighting fires
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Drama - Choosing an approach
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
There is a range of drama strategies that we use all the time. The important point is to select a strategy with which you feel confident. For example, the collective making of a map by the...
Drama - Choosing an approach
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Case Study 1: The Mr Men mystery of the missing cake
Primary History article
[Editorial note: this Case Study was an element in a yearlong Gifted and Talented Intervention Strategy that was the outcome of a NAGTY Developing Expertise Award teacher scholarship. There were seven ‘interventions’: the Mr Men Case Study and Case Study 2 were two of these. Full details of the DEA...
Case Study 1: The Mr Men mystery of the missing cake
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In my view: Why we need a national talent search to identify and nurture our most able children
Primary History article
[Editorial note: Sir Cyril Taylor provides an overview of the challenge for the maintained sector that the education of Gifted and Talented pupils presents. In relation to the primary phase reliable data is not available: but there is no evidence that G&T provision is any better for 3-11 year olds...
In my view: Why we need a national talent search to identify and nurture our most able children
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Engaging with controversial issues through drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The idea of children actively participating in their own education continues to be central to drama education. This same idea is also fundamental to the underlying ethos of citizenship education.There is a side to drama...
Engaging with controversial issues through drama
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Teaching about racism, fairness and justice through key people
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Our school has no uniform. You can’t predict what most children or teachers will wear from one day to the next. So the children were rather surprised one day in July 1996 when most of...
Teaching about racism, fairness and justice through key people
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A Load of Rubbish: Using Victorian throwaways in the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
There are many effective ways of using artefacts and resources for the Victorians, but how many teachers have considered using the rubbish that the Victorians literally threw away? This material can cost nothing or be...
A Load of Rubbish: Using Victorian throwaways in the classroom
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Grace O' Malley, alias Granuaile, pirate & politician, c. 1530-1603
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Northamptonshire Inspection & Advisory Service (NIAS) can confirm Paul Bracey’s view of the way Ireland’s rich stories help to provide a ‘sounder map of the past’ and increase ‘choice, range and fun in our...
Grace O' Malley, alias Granuaile, pirate & politician, c. 1530-1603
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Using children's literature to look at bias and stereotyping
Primary History article
We have come to understand that modern children's literature often provides a way of examining a range of social and moral issues, affording educators the opportunity to discuss issues such as bias and stereotyping. Many adults have seen the possibilities here to contextualise classroom incidents differently, or to explore themes...
Using children's literature to look at bias and stereotyping
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Making the Modern World: The shock of the real at the science museum
Primary History article
Making the Modern World is a vast, exuberant exposition of the real deal. From Arkwright's textile machines that kick-started the industrial revolution to the first Apple computer; from a pair of patented genetically-modified mice to the Apollo 10 command module that orbited the Moon - ons of the industrialised world...
Making the Modern World: The shock of the real at the science museum
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The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
This article reports some surprising gender-based trends indicated by a small scale piece of classroom research looking into incidental responses of Year 6 pupils to the teaching of Study Unit 11b (Britain Since...
The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany
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Questions you have always wanted to ask about...Using photographs as sources of evidence
Primary History article
Alan Hodkinson answers questions about using photographs as sources of evidence.
Questions you have always wanted to ask about...Using photographs as sources of evidence
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The coming of the railways - Fire-breathing monster or benefit to mankind?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Today children regard trains as just another not very exciting means of travel, but to many early Victorian people the thought of riding on a train was as alarming and exciting as the idea of space travel is today. To be whisked...
The coming of the railways - Fire-breathing monster or benefit to mankind?
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Questions you have always wanted to ask about... Accessing Archive Sources
Primary History article
Mary Mills answers questions about accessing archive sources.
Please note: this article dates from 2003 and some of the sources and services referenced may no longer be available.
Questions you have always wanted to ask about... Accessing Archive Sources
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Book for the Literacy Hour
Primary History article
Jo Barkham reviews 'Asha in the Attic' written by Gill Howell and illustrated by Alan Marks.
Book for the Literacy Hour
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Records for a study of the life of Agricultural Labourers in Somerset in the mid 19th century
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This article focuses on extracts from the mid nineteenth and provides information on the wages and living standards of agricultural labourers. In the article Sue Berry suggests numerous ways in which these extracts can be used in lessons at Key Stage 1...
Records for a study of the life of Agricultural Labourers in Somerset in the mid 19th century
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Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
When Prince Albert died in 1861 Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and ceased all public duties. By 1866 she had still not made any public appearances. Wolverhampton, like many other towns, raised a subscription to commission a statue in Albert’s memory....
Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
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Can you bring the dead back to life...?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Victoria Rogers highlights the importance of encouraging school visits to heritage sites and museums.
Can you bring the dead back to life...?
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The Plague in Cumberland 1597-1598. Some documents used in the Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle) by Key Stage 2 pupils studying the Tudors
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Outbreaks of the plague were common in the 16th century and the north of England was badly affected in the 1590s. It is believed that the plague arrived in Cumberland from Newcastle about Michaelmas 1597 and continued for over a year. The...
The Plague in Cumberland 1597-1598. Some documents used in the Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle) by Key Stage 2 pupils studying the Tudors
