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Teaching the Romans in Britain: a study focusing on Hadrian’s Wall
Primary History article
The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain is a unit of work in the Key Stage 2 history curriculum – and focusing on Hadrian’s Wall is one of the optional aspects suggested for study; although I would argue that the ‘successful invasion and conquest by Claudius’ aspect should be...
Teaching the Romans in Britain: a study focusing on Hadrian’s Wall
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The history of medicine – warts and all – for Key Stage 2
Primary History article
The story of the history of medicine is HUGE! In fact, it’s a story within story within a story…
You only have to note the substantial amounts that have been written on the subject in the past, to realise that this is a story that could baffle and perplex even...
The history of medicine – warts and all – for Key Stage 2
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Scheme of Work: The Blitz: all we need to know about World War II?
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (resourced)
This unit provides children with the opportunity to look at the Second World War as an aspect of British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066.
This 8-part enquiry is useable in full or to use sections of as stand alone shorter enquiries. Pupils will be encouraged to examine different...
Scheme of Work: The Blitz: all we need to know about World War II?
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For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
Primary History article
In October 1914 France faced defeat on what would later become the Western Front. If the Germans captured the channel ports then the small British Expeditionary Force (BEF) supporting the French would be cut off from Britain, and the channel ports themselves might be used to launch a German invasion of...
For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
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‘So why did they go into hiding?’ Anne Frank in her historical and social context
Primary History article
All too often Anne Frank becomes a symbol, used to show ‘the triumph of hope over evil’, even though she was killed during the Holocaust. Sometimes she is quoted utterly out of context to provide uplifting sentiments, or short phrases with redemptive messages.
What this lesson sets out to do...
‘So why did they go into hiding?’ Anne Frank in her historical and social context
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Is There a Place for The Holocaust in the Primary Curriculum?
Article
The Holocaust – the murder of approximately six million Jewish men, women and children by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War – is possibly the most difficult event that any history teacher will ever have to teach. Most obviously, it can be deeply upsetting, for educators...
Is There a Place for The Holocaust in the Primary Curriculum?
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Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
Primary History article
The recent survey of history teaching in primary schools conducted by the Historical Association revealed that the majority of respondents felt that they were short of resources to teach the revised National Curriculum. Not surprisingly most schools look to find resources that do the job cheaply. It is a truism...
Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
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What are the reasons for linking art and history?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Visual images, paintings, sculpture, photographs, cartoons from past times are important historical sources. Accordingly, Simon Schama embeds visual images and imagery in his historical oeuvre, not primarily as illustration but as a crucial...
What are the reasons for linking art and history?
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Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
Primary History feature
This image is a reconstruction, or interpretation, by Peter Dunn, an artist, of what Sandbach Crosses might have looked like in the ninth century. They are one of the few remaining Anglo-Saxon stone crosses in the country. They stand in the market place in Sandbach, Cheshire. You can find a...
Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
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Political literacy: citizenship through the English national curriculum's the Romans in Britain study unit
Primary History article
Hilary Claire raised fundamental issues about the relationship between History and Citizenship for the development of a sense of identity. Her paper stresses the importance of sceptical thinking, perspective, sequence and progression - the essential chronology that underpins pupil's education for citizenship in the timeframe that history provides...
Political literacy: citizenship through the English national curriculum's the Romans in Britain study unit
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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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Cabinets of Curiosities, The History of Museums
Article
Delving into the origin and history of museums, one finds that particular themes emerge which are still present amongst the underpinning dynamics of museums in the 21st Century. Inseparable from the story of museums and galleries, for example, are the notions of ‘collecting’ and ‘curiosity’ and likewise, one’s attention is...
Cabinets of Curiosities, The History of Museums
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Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Three curricular editions of Primary History, PH 50, Autumn 2008 , PH 53, Autumn 2009 and PH 57, Spring 2011 are directly relevant to teaching the Olympics.
PH 50, Autumn 2008 History Education in the 21st...
Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models
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Using classic fiction to support the study of childhood in Victorian times
Primary History article
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
Classic fiction provides useful sources of information for investigating the lives, beliefs and values of people in the past. In this article Ann Cowling describes activities undertaken with student teachers which may also serve as models...
Using classic fiction to support the study of childhood in Victorian times
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Using diaries to stimulate children's understanding of the past
Primary History article
Children develop their understanding of the past through a range of historical sources of evidence. Written sources may provide different types of information for children to work from. Records such as census returns or street directories provide information about families and tradespeople living in a particular communities and old maps...
Using diaries to stimulate children's understanding of the past
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A history of the world - 100 objects that tell a story
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial comment: A History of the World is the most creative, imaginative and dynamic development in primary History Education for thirty years. It ties in perfectly with and supports the government's re-vitalisation of primary education that...
A history of the world - 100 objects that tell a story
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Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
An article in the Sunday Times newspaper on 7 December reported that Britain is to stop making nominations to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for heritage sites to be granted World Heritage...
Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
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Dealing with the dead: Identity and community - Monuments, memorials and local history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Death is one of the most sensitive and controversial issues that teachers encounter, linked inextricably as it is to identity. I think it sometimes escapes our attention that, as teachers of history, we constantly deal...
Dealing with the dead: Identity and community - Monuments, memorials and local history
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Here come the Vikings! Making a saga out of a crisis
Primary History Article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What are your first impressions when you think of Alfred the Great? Perhaps it's the story of the heroic individual being humbled by burning the cakes or for those of a certain age, it may...
Here come the Vikings! Making a saga out of a crisis
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Identity Crisis: History through Science, strange bedfellows or obvious partners?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Science Museum in South Kensington, London is accessible through its website as well as through visiting the building itself and this article considers how history teachers can gain from using the collection and resources...
Identity Crisis: History through Science, strange bedfellows or obvious partners?
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Unpicking the learning potential in creative approaches to studying World War II
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘The biggest issue for school history is its limited place in the curriculum.' (Ofsted, 2007)
This central concern of Ofsted's 2007 report, History in the balance, could equally apply to the teaching of drama in primary schools....
Unpicking the learning potential in creative approaches to studying World War II
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Thinking through history: assessment and learning for the gifted young historian
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Historical enquiry requires reasoning. Even historical imagination depends on being able to evaluate a number of possible responses to an hypothesis and mastery of detail and argument. The high levels of thinking in history of...
Thinking through history: assessment and learning for the gifted young historian
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Planning for diversity in the Key Stage 2 history curriculum
Article
Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum and some content is now outdated, e.g. reference to the QCA. This article may therefore be more useful for those engaging in research than for practising teachers. See Primary History summer resource 2019: Diversity for current guidance.
In a series of three articles Hilary Claire...
Planning for diversity in the Key Stage 2 history curriculum
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Keeping the content manageable in Key Stage 2
Article
This section offers guidance on how Key Stage 2 history can be organised through the use of a number of key investigative questions for the most commonly taught areas of study.
Keeping the content manageable in Key Stage 2
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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
