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Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 History (Early Years)
Primary History article
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
History education needs to be placed in a wider pattern of curriculum development. Part I of this paper looks at general issues linking History with citizenship education and the early years. Part 2...
Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 History (Early Years)
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A classroom museum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated
Museums are memory boxes. They contain artefacts that tell stories about people in the past. The creation of a class museum is a simple and effective way of bringing the past to life through investigation,...
A classroom museum
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Exploring the use of historical fiction to support historical learning
Article
How many of us became interested in history through reading a good historical story? When starting this article we came up with a seemingly endless list of historically based stories and films which have inspired us. Clearly, we are surrounded by references to the past in popular culture and our...
Exploring the use of historical fiction to support historical learning
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Putting the Story back into History
Primary History article
Children love stories. They like the drama, the excitement, the chance to listen and to wonder. Narrative is a very important part of history and sometimes, by concentrating on facts or on skills, we tend to lose the view of the big picture, especially in the Key Stage 2 curriculum...
Putting the Story back into History
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Using Nursery Rhymes to develop children's knowledge and understanding of the past
Primary History article
Nursery rhymes are good sources of evidence about the past and their potential for developing children's understanding has been discussed in earlier editions of Primary History (Woodhouse: 2005, 2001; Cooper: 2005; Primary History : 2000) They may be used as starting points to provide information about past ways of life...
Using Nursery Rhymes to develop children's knowledge and understanding of the past
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Investigating children's awareness of changing values and attitudes through stories written in the past
Primary History article
Talking about historical stories written at different times in the past can reveal much about the more sophisticated understandings that young children have of the past. Primary school children often work with artefacts, historic architecture and sites to enable them to visualise and reconstruct the past. However, these sources do...
Investigating children's awareness of changing values and attitudes through stories written in the past
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Using historical fiction in the classroom
Article
If it is a story then what has that got to do with my teaching history? Well to begin with the best historical fiction is well researched. Good writers like Jill Paton Walsh take their research very seriously. She has commented that, "the writer may invent characters, conversations, circumstances, but...
Using historical fiction in the classroom
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As a primary school teacher have you taught about the Holocaust?
Primary History article
Teaching the Holocaust at primary level can be incredibly rewarding and result in pupils broadening their historical understanding as well as encouraging them to consider other issues. The importance of challenging prejudice, ignorance and racism, the importance of not being a bystander and valuing life are just a few of...
As a primary school teacher have you taught about the Holocaust?
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Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges and Opportunities
Primary History article
“It’s like they’ve gone up a year!” This was the unprompted observation of a teaching assistant at Buckden Primary School last summer, supporting Giles Fullard, a secondary history teacher from Hinchingbrooke School, near Huntingdon leading a lesson with a year 6 class on “Was Boudicca Britain’s first hero?” The scheme...
Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges and Opportunities
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What was it like to live here in the past? Resourcing the local study
Primary History article
Finding sources for your local study can be a challenge, particularly if you are not familiar with the history of the area around your school.
Please note: this article uses the Images of England website which has now closed down. The images can still be found via the Historic England website. This...
What was it like to live here in the past? Resourcing the local study
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Writing Family Story, Writing History
Primary History article
Why did I research my family history and write a memoir based on my ancestors’ and my own life? And why is all this relevant to readers of the Primary History Journal and not just self indulgent musing? Because it is an insider’s story of trying to write honest history...
Writing Family Story, Writing History
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How should we remember Rosa Parks?
Primary History Article
Rosa Parks died in October 2005, aged 92. It's a life story which resonates with any age group. In a recent visit to a nursery, I saw 4 year olds who had lined up the chairs to make a bus, playing out Rosa's refusal to move from her seat. She...
How should we remember Rosa Parks?
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Working with Historical Picture Books
Primary History article
For the majority of children a picture book is the first book that they enjoy and share with an adult. Picture books introduce children to different genres of writing, different themes and different artistic styles. As young children 'read' and explore picture books they take meaning from the text and...
Working with Historical Picture Books
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Cabinets of Curiosities, The History of Museums
Article
Delving into the origin and history of museums, one finds that particular themes emerge which are still present amongst the underpinning dynamics of museums in the 21st Century. Inseparable from the story of museums and galleries, for example, are the notions of ‘collecting’ and ‘curiosity’ and likewise, one’s attention is...
Cabinets of Curiosities, The History of Museums
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Using children's literature to look at bias and stereotyping
Primary History article
We have come to understand that modern children's literature often provides a way of examining a range of social and moral issues, affording educators the opportunity to discuss issues such as bias and stereotyping. Many adults have seen the possibilities here to contextualise classroom incidents differently, or to explore themes...
Using children's literature to look at bias and stereotyping
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Promoting talk during history lessons
Article
There are various reasons why pupils should be offered the opportunity to converse together during history. It can definitely be enjoyable for pupils to talk together and it helps to teach children how to share ideas. Pupils talking while working in a group may also use their peers' talk to...
Promoting talk during history lessons
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A Load of Rubbish: Using Victorian throwaways in the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
There are many effective ways of using artefacts and resources for the Victorians, but how many teachers have considered using the rubbish that the Victorians literally threw away? This material can cost nothing or be...
A Load of Rubbish: Using Victorian throwaways in the classroom
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The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
This article reports some surprising gender-based trends indicated by a small scale piece of classroom research looking into incidental responses of Year 6 pupils to the teaching of Study Unit 11b (Britain Since...
The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany
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History and the National Primary Strategy
Primary History article
The Historical Association poses a series of questions to the Director of the Primary National Strategy, Kevan Collins.
History and the National Primary Strategy
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Helping students make sense of historical time
Primary History article
This article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Once upon a time, educators believed that there was a property of children’s minds known as ‘understanding of time’. According to this belief, young children had little ability to understand when things happened, even within their own...
Helping students make sense of historical time
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Teaching history through the use of story: Working with early years' practitioners
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. For more current and recent articles see Using stories to support history in the EYFS and Time for a story.
In this article we argue that children in the Foundation Stage should be introduced to history as historical...
Teaching history through the use of story: Working with early years' practitioners
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Book for the Literacy Hour
Article
Jo Barkham reviews the book 'What Babies Used to Wear', written by Anne Witherington and Bobbie Neate.
Book for the Literacy Hour
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Book for the Literacy Hour
Article
Jo Barkham reviews the book 'A Day in the Life of a Victorian Child', written by Penelope Harnett.
Book for the Literacy Hour
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Using a Local Museum, Fulham Palace, the Hidden Jewel of West London
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘The 2,500 museums in the United Kingdom are a resource for public learning of exceptional educational, social, economic and spiritual value - a common wealth. This wealth is held in trust by museums for the...
Using a Local Museum, Fulham Palace, the Hidden Jewel of West London
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In the Footsteps of our Ancestors: Beamish - a unique educational experience
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What kind of experience will be remembered by the children in your class in 20 or 30 years’ time? A trip to Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum, would be a likely candidate....
In the Footsteps of our Ancestors: Beamish - a unique educational experience
