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Film: Why does the massacre of the Armenians in the First World War still get overlooked?
Virtual Branch
Why is the term 'Armenian Genocide' controversial, with many countries still not acknowledging a genocide at all? What do we know about the event of 1915 and the plight of the Armenian community in Turkey? How can we grapple with a history that many people want to forget? In this...
Film: Why does the massacre of the Armenians in the First World War still get overlooked?
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One of my favourite history places: Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds
Primary History article
When I was born my family lived in Kirkstall close to the Abbey and Abbey House Museum. We moved to Ireland Wood not long after this photograph was taken (I am the small one in the middle) but if we ever had a day out in the city we would...
One of my favourite history places: Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds
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Wangari Maathai as a significant individual
Primary History article
"Instead of a curriculum where race, gender and disability are mainly rooted in victim narratives, include positive representation. Go beyond teaching slavery and the Holocaust or gender narratives of victimhood…Actively use examples and narratives countering this dominance." Bennie Kara, (2021, p.59)
The 2014 National Curriculum for history sets out that children...
Wangari Maathai as a significant individual
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Mentoring Student Teachers
Primary History article
Up and down the country, providers of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) are involved in applying for reaccreditation so that they can continue to develop and support trainee teachers. This is being done against the backdrop of Ofsted implementing its new inspection framework for ITE, which has seen a number of providers...
Mentoring Student Teachers
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Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
Primary History article
While most teachers recognise the importance of artefacts in history education, knowing how to use them effectively can often prove more challenging. This article suggests ways to investigate historical objects and provides a framework to support children’s observations.
Why use artefacts?
Artefacts are simply any object used by people in...
Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
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What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
Primary History article
One of the many amazing things about History is that it can be found in everything; even the smallest or most mundane objects can provide an insight into how life has changed or provide a greater understanding of a different period in time.
Late October last year as the light...
What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
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Playing in the pandemic: Introducing the Play Observatory
Primary History article
What happens to children’s play in a global pandemic? In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping across the world, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from University College London and the University of Sheffield was beginning to plan a project to address this central question.
We began with history in...
Playing in the pandemic: Introducing the Play Observatory
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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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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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Film: “The Talk Should Not Be Broadcast”: Homosexuality and the BBC before 1967
Virtual Branch
In the centenary year of the BBC, this Virtual Branch talk from Marcus Collins relates the strange tale of how the BBC did and did not broadcast about homosexuality in the 1950s and 1960s and what it tells us about sexuality, broadcasting and the origins of permissiveness in mid-twentieth century Britain.
Marcus Collins...
Film: “The Talk Should Not Be Broadcast”: Homosexuality and the BBC before 1967
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How We Used to Sleep
School Resources
Want to take a fresh look at medicine through time with your students?
If so, you might be interested in teaching them about sleep’s history in the Renaissance. By focusing on sleep – something that we all do and have an opinion on – students can be introduced to changing...
How We Used to Sleep
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Film: A Jewish Divorce Case in Medieval England
Virtual Branch
In 1242, the prominent thirteenth-century Jewish financier David of Oxford attempted to divorce his wife, Muriel. In the process, he met with a number of obstacles which seriously hampered his efforts and had far-reaching implications for the Jewish community as a whole. In the end, David had to appeal directly...
Film: A Jewish Divorce Case in Medieval England
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Virtual Branch recording: Why has Monarchy survived in Europe?
Virtual Branch
In the lead-up to the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, Dr Bob Morris joined the HA Virtual Branch in March 2022 to consider why the monarchy has survived in Europe.
Dr R. M. (Bob) Morris is a Senior Honorary Research Associate at the Constitution Unit, University College London. He was formerly a...
Virtual Branch recording: Why has Monarchy survived in Europe?
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Your first year as a history subject leader
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
Although the emphasis on good practice changes over time, research over many years has identified some key characteristics of effective subject leadership that enjoy universal consensus. This practical piece from Rob Nixon and Tim Lomas reflects much of this recognised good practice. They offer some general principles you will find...
Your first year as a history subject leader
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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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History Abridged: Salt mines in Eastern Europe
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. See all History Abridged articles
Towards the end of the Bronze Age, the climate across Europe began to warm. This...
History Abridged: Salt mines in Eastern Europe
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Recorded webinar: Using 'One Day' to explore the actions that helped to lead to the Holocaust and actions of genocide
HA Webinar
This year's Holocaust Memorial Day the theme is 'One Day'. In this webinar with historian Paula Kitching, we will use the one day Wannsee Conference of January 1942 to help explore the actions of the perpetrators, the Holocaust victims and how decision making by people can lead to genocide.
This...
Recorded webinar: Using 'One Day' to explore the actions that helped to lead to the Holocaust and actions of genocide
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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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Pull-out posters: Primary History 90
Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II; Queen and Commonwealth
Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II
Queen and Commonwealth
Pull-out posters: Primary History 90
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Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
Primary History article
The Queen’s jubilee is a great opportunity to explore a huge range of concepts with EYFS children, and what better way to celebrate the experience than by creating your own celebration medals and to wear them in your own celebrations, as a continuation of the celebrations of so many years past....
Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
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Significance and interpretation in primary history
Primary History article
The terms ‘significance’ and ‘interpretation’ often go hand in hand with one another, but what do each of them mean and why is it that they fit together? Understanding both terms separately and how historians use interpretation to identify what is significant in history, and why historians cast their interpretations as to what...
Significance and interpretation in primary history
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Women and space: reaching for the stars
Primary History article
The exploration of the heavens has drawn mankind since the dawn of time. Vast monuments reached to the stars marked with astrological key points. Astronomers sought to understand the movement of the universe. Since the twentieth century however this investigation has moved into space itself, pioneered by restless and inquisitive souls...
Women and space: reaching for the stars
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How can we make effective use of the census in the primary history classroom?
Primary History article
If there is a list of sources that teachers are likely to be familiar with, it is almost certain that the census will be included. In part this is because this is something that we all participate directly in anyway so it has a personal resonance. It can hold a...
How can we make effective use of the census in the primary history classroom?
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Female migration to Australia
Primary History article
The Hyde Park Barracks, in Sydney, has a layered history. Designed by Francis Greenway (a convict architect) it was built between 1817 and 1819 by convict labour. Over the next three decades an estimated 50,000 male convicts passed through – some stayed for years, others days or only hours before...
Female migration to Australia
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Ukraine, children and schools
Primary History article
Children of different ages and maturity will have different levels of understanding and capacity for processing the information unfolding in Ukraine. Children under the age of five may have a very limited understanding of the conflict in Ukraine. If your young child asks you a question about what is happening, you...
Ukraine, children and schools
