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Discussion and debate exemplar: Columbus: was he a hero?
Short Lesson Exemplar
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Lynn Cowell's Year 2 class had been doing a topic on a famous person from the past: Christopher Columbus. It began with a story and picture sequencing, followed by some research into the life of Columbus.
Lynn had invited Ray Verrier...
Discussion and debate exemplar: Columbus: was he a hero?
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Viking Burial Mound
Lesson Plan (KS2)
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
In this simulation of an excavation, the children investigate a past event and imaginatively reconstruct what happened, on the basis of the...
Viking Burial Mound
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Viking travel
Lesson Plan (KS2)
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
How did the Vikings travel so far?
Using photos to investigate a Viking longboat. (See Gokstad ship for links to photographs.)
Key...
Viking travel
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Viking traders
Lesson Plan (KS2)
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
Enactive learning - a Viking trading game to help children understand the full variety of Viking life and culture. They were so...
Viking traders
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Vikings settle down
Lesson Plan (KS2)
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
This resource is free to everyone. For access to hundreds of other high-quality resources by primary history experts...
Vikings settle down
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Vikings: Egils Saga
Lesson Plan (KS2)
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
Key questions in this lesson were:
What did the Vikings value?
What can we discover from sagas and poetry?
(These resources...
Vikings: Egils Saga
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Sutton Hoo: describing artefacts found
Lesson Plan
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
Questions addressed in this lesson were:
What would you expect archaeologists to find at Sutton Hoo?
Why is it important to...
Sutton Hoo: describing artefacts found
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Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial comment: Pupil reading of written and printed texts is a central element in their ‘Doing History'. As such, it is one of numerous integrated pedagogic activities that combine to make up a lesson, a series...
Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
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Learning to engage with documents through role play
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
First let me say that I did not research the materials used or plan this lesson. For this I must acknowledge, with thanks, that this is the work of my colleague, Mike Huggins, and the senior...
Learning to engage with documents through role play
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Local history: young children using written, printed and multimodal sources
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Jo Barkham shows how creative, challenging and stimulating teaching can engage even the youngest pupils in the reading of written and printed text and multi-modal sources. She continues her account in the next edition...
Local history: young children using written, printed and multimodal sources
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Printed pictures with text: Using cartoons as historical evidence
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Written and printed sources are often multi-modal in nature, i.e. they combine images and text (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2001). Indeed, many printed sources in the print age, c. 1500-2000 and nearly all in the digital...
Printed pictures with text: Using cartoons as historical evidence
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Difficult and challenging reading: Genre, text and multi-modal sources
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What impact did the Saxon invaders have? Our Year 4 class were puzzling over the picture of the Roman town forum at the height of the Roman Empire, one A3 picture per pair of pupils.
To...
Difficult and challenging reading: Genre, text and multi-modal sources
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Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Primary prizes)
History competition for primary schools
The 2026 competition is now open. Entries close on 17 July 2026 (3 July for overseas entries).
We want young people to get the bug for writing about history in an interesting and critical way. Each year the Historical Association in collaboration with the Spirit of Normandy Trust and Classics for All offers a...
Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Primary prizes)
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Boudicca
Lesson Plan
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
Pupils asked:
Who was Boudicca?
What was she like physically and what was she like as a person?
What did other...
Boudicca
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Caesar lands
Lesson Plan
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
The class had a clear objective - an understanding of Julius Caesar's landing in Britain, using Caesar's own account in translation...
Caesar lands
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Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings
Primary Lesson Plans
Please note: these resources were produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.
A series of lessons, exemplars and guides to help you teach your students about the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings.
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings
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Mystery Suitcase
Lesson Plan exemplar
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This resource is free to everyone. For access to hundreds of other high-quality resources by primary history experts along with free or discounted CPD and membership of a thriving...
Mystery Suitcase
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Reformation
Lesson Plan
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The planning of an English church building in 1530, and what happened to it in the period of the Reformation in the 1540s, provides an excellent focus for the children to learn about what the Reformation meant to Tudor men and...
Reformation
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Children in Victorian Britain: Henry at boarding school
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
In this lesson children pursued an historical enquiry, raising questions and using original sources. They gained an understanding of conditions in early...
Children in Victorian Britain: Henry at boarding school
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Local study: Fulwell Windmill
Lesson Plan
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
The lesson formed part of a local study of Fulwell and Fulwell Windmill in Sunderland. It could also be taught as part of the Victorian Britain Study Unit. The children had already looked at maps and...
Local study: Fulwell Windmill
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Magellan at KS1
Lesson Plan
The Year 2 story of Magellan and his voyage round the world. The lessons provided part of the history and geography element in a wider topic on ‘Water'.
(These resources are attached below)
The teaching was done through the powerful medium of storytelling. The first session was taken up by...
Magellan at KS1
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Grace Darling
Lesson Plan
I taught a short history topic on Grace Darling, using a painting as the main focus, to encourage evidence-based learning. The painting depicts Grace and her father rowing towards the rocks where the remains of the Forfarshire are resting, with the lighthouse in the distance.
The speaking and listening elements...
Grace Darling
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Remembrance Day at KS1
Lesson Plan
Famous event in the past
This lesson introduces a famous event in the past through personal family history.
(These resources are attached below)
The photograph of Angela's grandfather, and the surrounding illustrations, provided a direct route into discussions about remembrance and war, then ranged wider still.
The children's literacy was...
Remembrance Day at KS1
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Magdalen Road
Lesson Plan
We focused on changes in one local set of shops (in Magdalen Road) and looked at the impact of the World War II Exeter blitz on the area.
The topic was a local study incorporating history and geography, developing children's historical understanding.
To develop as fully as possible the children's...
Magdalen Road
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Famous People: Florence Nightingale (KS1)
Lesson Plan
The life of a famous person from the past and why she acted as she did
Florence Nightingale: her life, why she went to the Crimea, and what happened as a result of her work.
Cross-curricular work: this lesson stretches and challenges all children, regardless of their ability, whilst teaching...
Famous People: Florence Nightingale (KS1)
