-
The Charles Dickens Primary School Project
Historian article
For many years London South Bank University [LSBU] trainee teachers have been engaged in a wide range of mini history-led, cross-curricular projects in local primary schools, culminating in the students teaching lessons to groups of children. Some of these projects have been on different aspects of community history, including in-depth...
The Charles Dickens Primary School Project
-
Ancient Greeks: The Olympics' War Games - Teaching through Drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
When I was a boy the Greek Olympics was one of the perennials of the primary history curriculum, alongside the Battle of Hastings and the execution of Charles I.
I have memories of an old text...
Ancient Greeks: The Olympics' War Games - Teaching through Drama
-
Investigating the ancient Olympic games: A Case Study
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In a 10-week unit on Ancient Greece, we gave the fourth lesson over to the ancient Olympic Games. The class was a delight: 32 enthusiastic Year 6 children in an urban county primary school.
We knew...
Investigating the ancient Olympic games: A Case Study
-
Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Below is a one-page outline of a wonderful briefing replete with visual and textual sources and teaching ideas from The Cambridge Schools Classics Project (CSC P). The outline below consists of the full introduction...
Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
-
Story, myth and legend: The Story of Atalanta
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Time and change in stories
Everyone loves a story and stories have always been at the heart of early years education. Children can relate their own experiences of time to stories in picture books about other...
Story, myth and legend: The Story of Atalanta
-
Harold Son of Godwin
Classic Pamphlet
To lecture on Harold Godwinson, earl of Wessex, King Harold II of England, in the year 1966 at Hastings is a presumption. We appear to know much about him, and yet in fact there are many gaps in knowledge. Much information, so plausible at first sight, proves unreliable on closer...
Harold Son of Godwin
-
Prehistoric Scotland
Classic Pamphlet
Prehistory is an attempt to reconstruct the story of human societies inhabiting a given region before the full historical record opens there. Its data, furnished by archaeology, are the constructions members of such societies erected and the durable objects they made. The events which should form its subject matter naturally...
Prehistoric Scotland
-
Racism and equality through the 1936 Berlin Olympics: the Olympics, Nationalism and Identity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article outlines ideas for teaching history with crosscurricular links to citizenship, with a Year 6 class...
Racism and equality through the 1936 Berlin Olympics: the Olympics, Nationalism and Identity
-
What sort of history should school history be? Debate Podcast
Debate Podcast
On July 18 2011 the Historical Association hosted a public debate chaired by Professor Simon Schama at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London.
With the history curriculum being the focus of intense interest the following series of podcasts from the debate examine what that curriculum might look like. Joining Simon Schama was five...
What sort of history should school history be? Debate Podcast
-
Using the Olympics as a learning tool: Active Research and Selecting Information
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The London 2012 Olympics presents a fantastic opportunity for cross-curricular teaching. All children are likely to be engaged on some level, with different countries represented in a variety of sports, huge coverage in the news and...
Using the Olympics as a learning tool: Active Research and Selecting Information
-
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
-
Your Victorian (And Greek!) Olympic Games
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The teaching ideas below are adapted from an idea the great John Fines developed for teaching Ancient Greek science. With active teacher support and guidance, it requires the pupils to use what they know, and their...
Your Victorian (And Greek!) Olympic Games
-
An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Italian confectioner Dorando Pietri is one of the most famous figures from the 1908 Olympics - famous for not winning. His story raises issues of sportsmanship suitable for class discussion. There are detailed accounts readily...
An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri
-
From Champion to Hero: Engaging Pupils in a study of significant Olympians
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Allocated the task of researching and presenting ideas for teaching about significant Olympians, I thought: ‘Brilliant, this is the easy one'. How wrong can one be! I expected to be able to access a plethora of...
From Champion to Hero: Engaging Pupils in a study of significant Olympians
-
Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What has a small Shropshire town got to do with the modern Olympic Games? Why is a country doctor a key figure in the development of the modern games? Why is one of the 2012 mascots...
Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
-
Teaching possibilities: From Plato to Nato
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Olympics historical dimension opens up a plethora of possibilities for history, projects and integrated approaches that draw upon the themes and approaches that underpin the primary school curriculum. Our top ten are:
1. Home and...
Teaching possibilities: From Plato to Nato
-
GCSE Topic Pack: Medicine through Time
Topic Pack
Medicine Through Time is a Development study. It traces the development of medical practice from prehistoric times to present day. This development is not always continuous and sometime knowledge went backwards or stayed the same for long periods of time. You will need to know the reasons for this. Medical...
GCSE Topic Pack: Medicine through Time
-
Young Quills 2025 – the winners
The Young Quills Awards for best historical fiction for young people
Each year, the Historical Association runs the Young Quills, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2024 for this year’s selection....
Young Quills 2025 – the winners
-
Talking History competition 2025 – the winners
11th September 2025
Talking History is now into its second year and gathering speed. Following the pattern of The Great Debate but adapted for Years 5 and 6 the competition seeks to encourage young people’s history and oracy skills through a public presentation. Schools are encouraged to enter their pupils into the online...
Talking History competition 2025 – the winners
-
Young Historian Awards 2025 – the winners
4th September 2025
Spirit of Normandy Trust SeniorAvani De Santis [Guildford Grammar School, Western Australia]Kyle Luk [Loughborough Grammar School] Caspar Wright [Wells Cathedral School]
Spirit of Normandy Trust Key Stage 3 Anne Andrews [St Mary’s Menston Catholic Voluntary Academy, Leeds]Rafferty Ludlow-Maisey [Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester]Robert Moczynski [Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield]
Spirit of...
Young Historian Awards 2025 – the winners
-
Write Your Own Historical Fiction 2025 – The winners
The HA’s writing competition for children aged 10-15 years
Take time, a place and a character or two, and you can create some of the most exciting stories ever told – and by telling a story you unleash a desire to seek knowledge, to entertain, to inform and to enrich the lives of others. Storytelling is one of the oldest...
Write Your Own Historical Fiction 2025 – The winners
-
Podcast: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
Presidential Lecture 2011
Professor Anne Curry delivered her final Presidential lecture at the Historical Association Annual Conference 2011 in Manchester.
Henry VI (1422-61) was England's youngest king, only nine months old when he succeeded his famous father. Traditionally he is seen as incompetent, pious and, latterly, insane, and thereby causing the Wars of...
Podcast: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
-
Podcast Series: The Women's Movement
Multipage Article
In Part 2 of our series on Social and Political Change in the UK 1800-present we look at the Women's Movement in the UK from its early origins through to the end of the 20th century
Part 2 features Dr Anne Logan, Professor June Hannam and Ms Jean Spence.
Also...
Podcast Series: The Women's Movement
-
Building a local history and geography toolkit
Primary CPD in partnership with the Geographical Association
22 May 2026
Book Now
In person: Historical Association, 59a Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4JH
The Curriculum and Assessment Review places emphasis on fieldwork in geography and learning about events through local history. This does not need to mean expensive trips to specific sites. There is a great deal...
Building a local history and geography toolkit
-
Young Quills 2026
Young Quills 2026 Competition submissions
Each year, the Historical Association runs Young Quills, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition, which was 2025 for the 2026 competition.
Our...
Young Quills 2026
