-
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
-
Music and history combine at Key Stage 2
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Section 1: Introduction
Music is a powerful, emotive subject to enrich Historical, Geographical and Social Understanding. The Historical Association has a long and proud tradition of working closely with the Schools Music Association. In 2005, to...
Music and history combine at Key Stage 2
-
Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Knowledge of the experience of women during Victorian times has developed considerably during the last thirty years. History had a privileged place within the British Women’s Liberation movement in the early 1970s and reclaiming the...
Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
-
Looking at buildings as a source for developing historical enquiries
Primary History article
Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum. The section on using computers in particular is now outdated.
Buildings offer a fascinating insight into history. We live, work and shop in buildings of various descriptions. Some of these buildings are very new, others are very old. Frequently...
Looking at buildings as a source for developing historical enquiries
-
Progression without Levels
Briefing Pack
"As part of our reforms to the national curriculum , the current system of ‘levels' used to report children's attainment and progress will be removed. It will not be replaced." (DfE 2013)
When National Curriculum levels were removed in 2014, it was all too easy to fall into the trap of...
Progression without Levels
-
Oral history in primary schools
Article
Although this article focuses on a distinctive and effective historical activity it is important from the outset to recognise that involvement in oral history also has the potential to enhance learning across the ‘formal curriculum’ and beyond. Talking to older people about their lived experience and recording their memories provides...
Oral history in primary schools
-
Working with Boudicca texts - contemporary, juvenile and scholarly
Teaching History article
Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may now be outdated.
Robert Guyver describes a model for teaching Boudicca’s rebellion to pupils aged 7 to 13. Drawing on the tradition of critical source evaluation, he nonetheless shuns aspects of that tradition in favour of...
Working with Boudicca texts - contemporary, juvenile and scholarly
-
Reading documents and simulation exemplar: Victorian trade directories
Exemplar
The Year 5 class was soon to visit a local museum where a Victorian parade of shops is recreated. We decided to use the 1857 trade directory for our town, Crediton in Devon, to bring its main shopping street to life before the visit. Trade directories, together with census returns...
Reading documents and simulation exemplar: Victorian trade directories
-
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings Lessons
Lesson Plans
Please note: these lessons were produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-date 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 community of teachers...
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings Lessons
-
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?
-
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
-
Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
When Prince Albert died in 1861 Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and ceased all public duties. By 1866 she had still not made any public appearances. Wolverhampton, like many other towns, raised a subscription to commission a statue in Albert’s memory....
Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
-
Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
Exemplar
Questioning can be used in assessing childrens historical skills, as this example shows.The children were all in Year 4, and were withdrawn from their mixed Year 3/4 class for this lesson. They had covered several aspects of National Curriculum history, including over the past year the Egyptians and a local...
Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
-
Using objects and writing KS1 exemplar: Old and new telephones
Exemplar
Lynn Cowell's Year 2 class were doing a project on old and new telephones, with the primary aim of developing the children's skills in investigating objects. During the project, I visited the class once a week.
Lynn and I began by showing the children four telephones: a candlestick phone, an...
Using objects and writing KS1 exemplar: Old and new telephones
-
Roman Britain: a brief history
Reference guide for primary
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 community of teachers and subject leaders, join the Historical Association today
From the founding of the city of Rome in the...
Roman Britain: a brief history
-
Key Stage 2-3 History Transition Project
Guide to KS2-KS3 Transition
Please note: these resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum. For more recent resources on Transition KS2-KS3 please see:
Transition KS2–KS3 (Primary History article, 2021)
Smooth Transitions: Key Stage 2 to 3 (Primary History article, 2020)
Transition Key Stage 2 and 3 (Primary History article, 2016)
Before 1066 & All That: Transition between...
Key Stage 2-3 History Transition Project
-
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
-
Was Boudicca Britain's first hero?
Year 6 Scheme of Work
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This unit centres on Queen Boudicca.
While factual knowledge about her life and the Roman occupation are an essential component of the unit, the main focus is on contrasting interpretations of Boudicca over time and exploration of the reasons behind her...
Was Boudicca Britain's first hero?
-
Myths and War Evacuees
Year 6 Scheme of Work
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This unit centres on the evacuation of children during the second world war. While the factual knowledge of evacuation is an essential component of the unit, the main focus is on exploring the varied feelings and experiences of children sent to...
Myths and War Evacuees
-
Podcast Series: Confronting Controversial History
Podcast Series
Controversial History formed the focus of the Historical Association’s report, Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19 (TEACH). Published in 2007, it offered teachers invaluable guidance for teaching historical topics that can stir emotion and controversy. However, the authors noted how the nature of the sensitivity can be affected by ‘time, geography and...
Podcast Series: Confronting Controversial History
-
Storytelling
E-CPD
N.B. This unit was produced before the new curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links.
Why story telling is important in primary history
Story is the most wonderful way of engaging children with history. At the...
Storytelling
-
Chronology
E-CPD
N.B. This unit was produced before the new curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links.
Learning about the complex concept of chronology is often considered very challenging for young children, yet this understanding underpins children's developing...
Chronology
-
Chronology: blank timelines
Resource
Chronology: blank timelines
-
Global Learning Project - Hawkshead Primary
GLP Case Study
Hawkeshead Primary School in the Lake District is a small village school, with a teaching head. Yet they have gone to great pains to integrate the ideals of Global Learning into their curriculum. They are an Expert Centre, leading a team of 20 local schools - primary and secondary -...
Global Learning Project - Hawkshead Primary
-
Lucy Worsley: How to build an Anniversary
Annual Conference Film
Do you sometimes heave a cynical sigh when you hear that it's 175 years since the invention of, say, the paperclip, and that a wealth of exhibitions, books and TV programmes are planned to celebrate the fact?
Well, anniversaries can be a powerful hook to get people interested in the...
Lucy Worsley: How to build an Anniversary
