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Scheme of Work: Maya
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (unresourced)
In this unit pupils will learn about the remarkable achievements of the ancient Maya. Through these activities pupils will learn about the Maya perspective of time, the calendar system, writing, maths and the environment. In doing so they should see the stark contrast between their own history and that of...
Scheme of Work: Maya
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Disability in primary history teaching
Primary History article
This article is based on a session by Bev Forrest and Mel Jones at the HA Conference in May 2024. The central concern is to support teachers to weave the experiences and lives of disabled people in the past into the primary curriculum. It looks at possible opportunities in EYFS, Key Stage 1...
Disability in primary history teaching
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Archaeology and the Early Years: The Noah's Ark Experience
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The authors of this article first worked together on a number of small scale excavations while Bev was still a primary school teacher in the Bradford area. When Bev changed roles to train...
Archaeology and the Early Years: The Noah's Ark Experience
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Anniversaries: The Coventry Blitz and the Grave of the Unknown Soldier
Primary History article
This Autumn we remember two events related to the impact of war and how people have reacted to them. The first anniversary remembers the Nazi devastation of Coventry 80 years ago on 14 November 1940 and the second event relates to the body of the ‘Unknown warrior’ who was laid...
Anniversaries: The Coventry Blitz and the Grave of the Unknown Soldier
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 78
Investigating the Shang Dynasty and History in the primary curriculum
1. Investigating the Shang Dynasty; 2. History in the primary curriculum - what does it offer?
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 78
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Recorded Webinar: India and the Second World War
Article
Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British during the Second World War. Their experiences are little remembered today, neither in the West where a Euro/US-centric memory of the war dominates, nor in South Asia, which privileges nationalist histories of independence from the British Empire. What was it like...
Recorded Webinar: India and the Second World War
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Processes, Chronological Understanding & Planning
Primary Expert Podcasts
In this podcast Dr Hilary Cooper, Professor of History and Pedagogy at the University of Cumbria, looks at why teachers and students seem to enjoy primary history and discusses processes of enquiry, chronological understanding and planning a topic. 1. Ofsted Report History for All published in 2011 said that: "history taught in schools...
Processes, Chronological Understanding & Planning
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 77
Posters: Fun across time and Write your own historical fiction
1. Fun across time; 2. Write your own historical fiction
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 77
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 76
Posters: Communication and Sutton Hoo helmet
1. Communication Across the Ages; 2. The British Museum's Sutton Hoo Helmet
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 76
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What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 1
Primary History article
This article is primarily concerned with how pupil progress is affected negatively by general misunderstandings and confusions. What are some of these confusions? Here are what some teachers felt were some of the main ones:
Muddling issues from one period or place with those of another place.
People in the past must...
What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 1
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Victorian child labour: slate mining
Lesson Plan
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. For more recent resources see:
Victorians (Primary History article, 2014)
Scheme of work: Sarah Forbes Bonetta
Scheme of work: Brunel
Download Resources 1 and 2 as well as the teachers' notes.
Resources 1 gives you the paragraphs for the children to cut...
Victorian child labour: slate mining
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 75
Posters: Sources, and How to read a house
1. How to 'read' a house; 2. What sources can we use to learn about railways?
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 75
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Creating effective history displays
Primary History article
Having been an history co-ordinator for over 15 years, I was fortunate enough to be able to plan a wide range of history displays which covered multiple periods. I enjoyed it because, for me, it provided the opportunity to inspire, inform and provoke a response. When preparing a display, I would...
Creating effective history displays
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Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
Primary History article
The Abbasid Caliphate stretched from North Africa across to Afghanistan and the North West Frontier. Within the caliphate there were movements of people, goods and ideas. The golden period of this early Islamic caliphate was around 900 AD. As the caliphs were building a major trading empire across the Middle...
Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
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Creativity in history
Primary History article
Ask anyone for a list of creative subjects in schools and it is unlikely that history will be top of that list. However, over the last two-and-a-half years we have been working as part of a Creativity Collaborative of schools that seeks to foster creativity across the whole curriculum, including...
Creativity in history
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Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
Historian article
'At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival. Congratulations.’ This telegram was sent from Luxor on the 6th November 1922 by Howard Carter to his coarchaeologist Lord Carnarvon in Britain. It started the Tut·ankh·Amen story which led to a...
Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
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Writing books for young children about the First World War
Article
It is hardly surprising that there are very few books for young children which tackle such a difficult subject as the First World War. In considering our approach, we knew we had to balance two distinct considerations – being absolutely true to the facts, yet, being sensitive to the effect of...
Writing books for young children about the First World War
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Stories and National Identity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
If you were asked to select just one story which you thought all children should know about British history, what would it be? Would it be Guy Fawkes or Florence Nightingale? The battle of Hastings...
Stories and National Identity
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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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Using picture books to explore ideas around history with very young children
Primary History article
This article looks at the relevance of picture books in the Early Years Foundation Stage as a resource for introducing children to the idea of the past. Firstly examining its relevance to the Framework, Karin identifies some appropriate resources and how they can be used. In particular, she links them...
Using picture books to explore ideas around history with very young children
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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
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The Olympic Games, Classical and Modern
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Possibly a ‘once in a lifetime' experience will be witnessing the British hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games. Despite the inevitable commercialisation of the event, it will certainly be possible for children to be excited and...
The Olympic Games, Classical and Modern
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Urban spaces cross-curricular work: Art & Design
Lesson Resources
Please note: these free resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.
This is part of a set of subject areas also covering History, Science and Literacy.
See also Cross-curricular learning
Public spaces offer a range of opportunities for children's learning, and can enable children to investigate, observe, wonder, record and create.
The suggested activities in this section...
Urban spaces cross-curricular work: Art & Design
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Significant anniversaries: the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb
Primary History article
“At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival; congratulation.”
When Howard Carter sent these words via telegram to his friend and patron Sir George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon on 6 November 1922, he had yet to fully appreciate...
Significant anniversaries: the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb
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How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
Primary History article
There is no question that the medieval period (no matter what timespan it claims) offers plenty of fascination for the primary pupil. It also allows some continuity with the period up to 1066 which forms the bedrock of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum. With opportunities to cover the medieval...
How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
