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Primary History Summer Resource 2019: Diversity
Primary History resource
This free summer resource for primary members is designed to help primary subject leaders and teachers consider the implications of developing a school policy for teaching of diversity in history. This comprehensive guide provides timely advice and considers questions associated with teaching diversity and provides a rationale for its essential role in providing an understanding...
Primary History Summer Resource 2019: Diversity
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Good practice in primary history: the Quality Mark scheme
Primary History article
This article aims to cover two separate but related aspects. Firstly, using the evidence of Quality Mark visits to primary schools, Bev Forrest identifies and explains some of the best practice observed on these visits. Secondly, Mel Jones focuses on one specific case study illustrating the type of primary history...
Good practice in primary history: the Quality Mark scheme
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Tracking pupil progress
Primary History article
Assessment issues crop up with regularity in the pages of this journal. They have also been mentioned frequently in inspections and in the schools assessed for the Quality Mark.
The problem with some of the recommendations is that they anticipate massive amounts of time and energy being devoted to it...
Tracking pupil progress
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Help! I am a new co-ordinator: when should I do what?
Primary History article
It would be pleasant to give an easy answer and produce a recommended calendar for all co-ordinators. The problem is that every school is different, the roles and expectations of co-ordinators vary and some years are different to others. Some co-ordinators have time to fulfil roles like observing colleagues. Some...
Help! I am a new co-ordinator: when should I do what?
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Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
Primary History article
From a visit to a local museum or heritage site, to using bushcraft skills to give pupils first-hand experience of what it might have been like to live in ancient times, teaching prehistory outside the classroom can really give this area of the curriculum the wow factor. The inclusion of...
Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
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Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
Primary History feature
Please note: this piece was written before Sir Mo Farah’s 2022 disclosure that he was trafficked to the UK as a child, so some of its content is no longer accurate.
An assembly could focus on the achievements of their lives, experiences as child refugees and migrants, and how they overcame...
Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
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One of my favourite history places: Fulham Palace
Primary History feature
In the south-west corner of London, nestled up against the Thames, lies Fulham Palace. This is a palace that was not for kings and queens but bishops, the princes of the church. This was the summer palace for the bishops of London which they retreated to when the heat and stench of the...
One of my favourite history places: Fulham Palace
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Coherence in primary history
Primary History article
This article looks at what coherence is, how it can be mapped and ways in which classroom activities can enhance pupils’ awareness of the past in a more coherent way.
What is it?
The term ‘coherence’ has been around a fair time now. Most reincarnations of the National Curriculum have referred to the need for...
Coherence in primary history
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Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
Primary History feature
Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog stories, came to Britain in 1936 with her brother Michael and their parents, Alfred and Julia Kerr. Her father was Jewish, an anti-Nazi, and famous theatre critic who fled Berlin as Hitler came to power in 1933,...
Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
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Learning Outside the Classroom
Article
In recent times, it is easy to recognize that there has been a general move towards promoting outside activities across all manner of organizations and groups. For instance, organisations such as The National Trust and Ordnance Survey are keen to promote outdoor experiences in their literature. An online presence advocates...
Learning Outside the Classroom
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Using the back cover image: Exploring the collections of Victorian naturalists
Primary History feature
Many museums around the country house natural history collections that offer children the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of species from around the world. Using the collections of Victorian explorers and naturalists offers children a historical perspective with a cross-curricular approach which has a great appeal. Yet for...
Using the back cover image: Exploring the collections of Victorian naturalists
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Using the back cover image: Mummified cat
Primary History feature
For hundreds of years, travellers to Egypt have marvelled at the amazing monuments evident throughout the country. The treasures of Ancient Egypt became more fascinating after the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799, which led to the deciphering of the hieroglyphic language. Many Victorian explorers returned to their European...
Using the back cover image: Mummified cat
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Teaching the First World War in the primary school
Article
The current commemorations of the First World War have opened the door to some real opportunities for those teaching primary history – perhaps even considering taking children to the battlefields. Although this is customarily a secondary-school experience, this article outlines the opportunities for primary-age children. The suggestions here are based...
Teaching the First World War in the primary school
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Ideas for Assemblies: Empowering pupils to understand the First World War
Article
Remembering the Battle of the Somme and other events within the First World War will be popular features of primary assemblies as part of the centenary commemorations. Yet primary teachers are often concerned about how to explore a topic as challenging as the First World War with such a young...
Ideas for Assemblies: Empowering pupils to understand the First World War
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The Stone Age conundrum
Making use of a local site to develop historical knowledge
History – the very word makes the primary teacher in me feel excited. There are simply so many variables, so many dark nooks and crannies of history to explore and so many different angles through which to draw in a class of eager young minds. Thanks to a wellexecuted history...
The Stone Age conundrum
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Local history and a sense of identity
Article
The history co-ordinator often finds some real challenges as well as opportunities in addressing local history in primary schools. The advantages are well rehearsed – making history relevant to the lives of the children and giving them an improved sense of identity and place through engagement with the ‘real thing’....
Local history and a sense of identity
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Ideas for Assemblies: Battle of the Somme
Article
Commemorating the Battle of the Somme through an assembly is not an easy task and one which needs careful thought and preparation. This battle officially started on 1 July 1916, after a week-long artillery bombardment, though both British and French commanders had prepared for the offensive for several months. To highlight...
Ideas for Assemblies: Battle of the Somme
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HA response to the DFE consultation on CPD
CPD Consultation
In September, the government launched a call for evidence concerning teachers professional development. The Historical Association has responded to the call for evidence on behalf of our members. You can read our response below.
HA response to the DFE consultation on CPD
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Ideas for Assemblies: The Olympics
Article
A series of whole-school or class assemblies planned for the weeks leading up to the Olympic Games in 2016 provides an excellent opportunity to introduce or reinforce pupils’ understanding of significance. Over the weeks the pupils will be introduced to inspirational stories taken from previous games and through this be...
Ideas for Assemblies: The Olympics
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Our Iron Age challenge
Developing historical understanding through building an iron age house
The University of Chichester’s three-year BA (Hons) Degree for Primary Education and Teaching involves learning how to provide rigorous and creative educational opportunities for children. The course involves one creativity module each year. The final one involves the development of skills and confidence in creating problem-solving.
Four of us were...
Our Iron Age challenge
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Primary history and British values
Article
In this article, Michael Maddison provides an overview of what schools must do in relation to promoting British values, as well as preventing extremism and radicalisation, and why it is so important that opportunities are taken in history to deal with these two pressing issues. It is an updated version...
Primary history and British values
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Teaching history and geography together in a meaningful way
WHEN 2 + 2 = 5!
This article explores some of the ways history and geography can be taught side by side, so that the sum of the parts adds up to more than the original. How can we teach history with geography and vice versa, to the benefit of both, while fulfilling the aims of...
Teaching history and geography together in a meaningful way
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So was everyone an ancient Egyptian?
Developing an understanding of the world in ancient times
I will be honest – no child has actually asked me if the world was ever full of Ancient Egyptians! Having said that, by focusing on one part of the world, children are left with either this impression or the idea that nothing was happening elsewhere in the world. Clearly,...
So was everyone an ancient Egyptian?
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Time for a story
Using stories in the Early Years and Foundation Stage
Stories are an important part of a young child’s way of making sense of their world. Hilary Cooper’s excellent article ‘Why Stories?’ explores some of the reasons why stories are important to young children and their growing ‘understanding of the world’. This article is going to explore some recommended stories...
Time for a story
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What confuses primary children in history...
... and what can we do about it?
Young children who automatically see shiny things as new no matter what their age, those who mix up technology from one age with another, those who dismiss people in the past as stupid because they did not have the possessions we have today, those who equate the age of a...
What confuses primary children in history...
