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Virtual Branch Recording: 'Hidden Histories of the Viking Age'
Embers of the Hands
Eleanor Barraclough tells a richly detailed history of the Viking Age through the everyday objects and traces left by ordinary people, revealing the complex, lived realities behind the familiar saga‑era myths.
Dr Eleanor Barraclough is a historian, author and broadcaster. Her most recent book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories...
Virtual Branch Recording: 'Hidden Histories of the Viking Age'
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Recorded webinar: Apartheid in global context: transnational dimensions of South Africa’s racial state
Article
While often viewed as a pariah state existing in isolation, the apartheid project was deeply entwined with global shifts in the 20th century. This webinar explores how international ideologies, Cold War geopolitics, and global anti-apartheid movements both challenged and inadvertently shaped the South African state. By contextualising apartheid within a...
Recorded webinar: Apartheid in global context: transnational dimensions of South Africa’s racial state
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Times of transition: supporting pupils with the idea of change in history
Primary History article
This article considers how to help children to understand about the layered process of change by considering transition points between the Iron Age, Roman settlement of Britain, and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. It suggests activities that will encourage children to explore the idea of long-term change. These could be...
Times of transition: supporting pupils with the idea of change in history
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Recorded webinar: The Crusades through Middle Eastern eyes: Islamic and Eastern Christian perspectives
Article
The Crusades were traditionally studied as an extension of western European history. In recent decades, however, historians have begun to study the Crusades from the perspective of Middle Eastern history, through sources left behind by local Muslims as well as Eastern Christians. This presentation will discuss this shift in the...
Recorded webinar: The Crusades through Middle Eastern eyes: Islamic and Eastern Christian perspectives
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How have schools interpreted the new EYFS Framework?
Primary History article
The new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework became statutory from this September (2021). Although the seven areas of learning and development remain unchanged (including Understanding the World), the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) have changed within each of these areas. These new ELGs have been written so that they are...
How have schools interpreted the new EYFS Framework?
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to scholarship and interpretation in the primary classroom
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 5: Practical approaches to scholarship and interpretation in the primary classroom
This session will show teachers how to introduce both interpretations and scholarship in the primary classroom so that children gain an understanding of the work of historians. The session...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to scholarship and interpretation in the primary classroom
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Virtual Branch Recording: A Brief History of the Coast in 100 Objects
Article
The coast means something different to everyone. It’s a place of pleasure and reckless pursuits, of fishing, fearless endeavours and a crashing, rugged beauty. The coast is, and always has been, Britain's first line of defence and springboard to other cultures.
In this talk public historian Sally Coulthard delves into...
Virtual Branch Recording: A Brief History of the Coast in 100 Objects
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Local fires as a subject of historical enquiry
Primary History article
The Great Fire of London is a popular Key Stage 1 history topic. In this article, James explores the widespread occurrence of ‘great’ fires and the potential of local examples for historical enquiry. Comparison between London and these local fires allows for discussion of similarities and differences in terms of...
Local fires as a subject of historical enquiry
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Planning a history unit of work from scratch
Primary History article
In this article, Rachel wrestles with one of the greatest challenges facing teachers. With the starting point maybe no more than a title or mass of content, how do you begin the process of formulating an exciting and worthwhile teaching programme? It aims to give some tips and ideas to...
Planning a history unit of work from scratch
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Developing a love of history through historical fiction
Primary History article
In this article, Steven Kenyon reminds us of the importance of historical fiction as part of good primary history. He examines its current role and, in this National Year of Reading, identifies a few of the best examples that can enhance the teaching of history, covering EYFS right up to...
Developing a love of history through historical fiction
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Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
Primary History article
Recognising that most schools deliver history as separate units that are then divided into themes, Nick Mackintosh argues that this means a lack of a narrative thread, which can result in children struggling to analyse it effectively. A thematic history curriculum is much better at developing children’s understanding of chronology,...
Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
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Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
Primary History article
In this article, Jo identifies a rationale for learning about this civilisation and addresses some of the ways it can be taught, especially with older primary children. It includes a comparative enquiry with Anglo-Saxons. She also highlights how recent research has developed a greater understanding of the Maya and, at...
Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
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Virtual Branch recording: Crusader Castles
Article
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the crusaders constructed tens of castles across the Middle East, some merely small watchtowers, others massive strongholds or fortress cities - but why did the crusaders place so much importance on fortifications?
Nicholas Morton explores the development of this remarkable phenomenon asking key questions...
Virtual Branch recording: Crusader Castles
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Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
Historian article
In the pre-modern world, the ability to speak and to hear were fundamental to participation in civil society. How, then, could prelingual deaf people survive and thrive? Rosamund Oates, author of the recently published Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England, charts the long struggle for the recognition of sign...
Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
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Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
Historian article
Throughout history, war has been one of the great producers of disability, and the disabled veteran has often provoked feelings of pride and pity. In this article, Christopher Thomas Goodwin explores the multiple meanings of the disabled soldier in Nazi Germany...
Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
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On-demand webinar: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understanding
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Session 5: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understandingPresenter: Ailsa Fidler and Simon Lea
AI-driven immersive history is entering our classrooms in ways previously unimaginable. Through interactive simulations, image and video generation and storytelling, students will be able to explore historical events and...
On-demand webinar: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understanding
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In conversation with David Turner
Historian feature
Disabled people have always been present in Britain’s past. Yet they have often appeared only at the edge of historical narratives: as recipients of charity, as objects of medical attention, as casualties of war or work, or as figures in stories told by institutions rather than by themselves. In Disability:...
In conversation with David Turner
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Virtual Branch Recording: Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War
Article
Jane Rogoyska tells the story of the Hôtel Lutetia, the only ‘grand’ hotel on the city’s bohemian Left Bank, serving as a meeting place for artists, musicians and politicians. André Gide took his lunch here, James Joyce lived in one of its rooms, Picasso and Matisse were regular guests. But...
Virtual Branch Recording: Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War
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Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
Primary History article
Children in nursery and reception classes do not, of course, learn history. They meet the subject for the first time when they start Year 1. However, what children learn – and how they learn – in EYFS is important for preparing them to learn history. This goes beyond building knowledge...
Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
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Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
Article
In this webinar, Professor Rosamund Oates shares her research for her new book Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England (2026). Professor Oates is an expert in the historical cultures of early modern England and is passionate about exploring previously unknown stories of deaf and disabled people, using rigorous scholarly...
Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
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Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
Article
In this webinar historian Shane O’Rourke – a specialist in late-Imperial Russian society and ethnicities, including the Cossacks – explores society under the last three Tsars, examining Russification in the western Russian borderlands, Russian settler colonialism, the Caucasus and deportation, and current historiographical trends.
Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
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What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
Primary History article
In this article, Karin Doull examines some characteristic features of the Indus Valley Civilisation and considers what these might tell us about this fascinating, less well-known empire...
What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to significance
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 4: Practical approaches to significance
This session will show teachers how to introduce the concept of significance to children using both individuals and events. It will give ideas of units around individuals and events and how to move beyond significance...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to significance
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 3: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
This session will give teachers tips on how to explore similarity and difference in a meaningful way in the primary classroom. It will look at introducing the concept in Key Stage 1 to...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to change and continuity
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 2: Practical approaches to change and continuity
This session will show practical ways to introduce change and continuity to children, starting from the basics of change between a time in the past and today; to change and continuity within and...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to change and continuity
