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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 69
Britain and World timeline 4000-2000BC, and key primary historical terms
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 69
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Learning what a place does and what we do for it
Primary History article
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
Why teach children about architecture and the built environment?
Because they shape the future and because they already change our architecture and define the public realm everyday through their actions. Learning about architecture and the built...
Learning what a place does and what we do for it
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Victorian Britain and the Victorian World
E-CPD
This E-CPD unit has a number of possible focuses within the broader topic of Victorian Britain and the wider Victorian world. This follows a pattern that is strong within the structures of the School History Project. Each sub-topic needs to mirror what is best in history education at primary level, including...
Victorian Britain and the Victorian World
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Case Study: Classroom archaeology. Sutton Hoo, or the mystery of the empty grave
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘Would you like to go for a walk in the woods on the other side of the river? I asked my wife on a spring day in 1982. Happily she assented, and we drove off...
Case Study: Classroom archaeology. Sutton Hoo, or the mystery of the empty grave
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Case Study: Engaging history with National Trust tracker packs
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
White Horse Hill in Oxfordshire is home to the famous chalk White Horse, and it has been for the last 3000 years. The history surrounding this hill, high up on the Berkshire Downs, goes back...
Case Study: Engaging history with National Trust tracker packs
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Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
An article in the Sunday Times newspaper on 7 December reported that Britain is to stop making nominations to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for heritage sites to be granted World Heritage...
Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
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Our heritage: use it or lose it
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Mrs Markham's influential textbook, ‘A History of England', was first published in 1819 but was still being printed at the end of the nineteenth century. At the end of each chapter is a ‘Conversation'...
Our heritage: use it or lose it
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Victorians
Primary History article
The Victorians is a much-loved unit of work in many schools and some teachers were disappointed to see it had been removed but there are still ways to continue to teach it under the 2014 National Curriculum. In many localities there will be a huge variety of Victorian buildings - including...
Victorians
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Teaching Ancient Egypt: developing subject knowledge
Primary History article
Ancient Egypt is one of the most popular societies taught in primary schools. In this article Karin Doull argues the importance of having a coherent approach to the content. Much of the article focuses on the key areas that teachers may wish to consider if they are to achieve a...
Teaching Ancient Egypt: developing subject knowledge
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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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Fifty years ago we lost the need to know our twelve times tables
Primary History article
In the first year of junior school, I was in Mrs Phillip’s class. She was one of those teachers who you remember, but, sadly not for good reasons. I was very frightened of Mrs Phillips and the worst part of every week was the tables test… forwards, backwards and questions...
Fifty years ago we lost the need to know our twelve times tables
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How significant is the tragic story of the SS Mendi?
Primary History article
Historical anniversaries and events are often in the news, commemorated locally and nationally. I have found that getting the children involved in topics relating to these can really help them feel the importance of their learning, help them to appreciate the past and feel a sense of responsibility – a...
How significant is the tragic story of the SS Mendi?
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Local People and Places in the Early Years
Article
Learning in the Early Years through Local People and Places: developing historical concepts in the Early Years Foundation Stage
Using the local environment as a starting point for historical learning in EYFS not only helps young children engage and make learning meaningful and relevant, but also helps them develop a strong sense of identity. Working...
Local People and Places in the Early Years
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The creative history curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Do you give in to bullying, stay loyal to your leader, admit your actions, betray your neighbours, challenge discrimination or just keep quiet? These were the issues faced by Year 4 children at East...
The creative history curriculum
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Diagrams in History
Historian article
One of the gifts of the social sciences to history is the use of expository diagrams; but attention is rarely given to the history of diagrams. Maps - schematized representations of locations in spatial relation to one another - can be dated back to Babylonia in the late third millennium...
Diagrams in History
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Animation case study: Indus Valley figurines
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Since the advent of animation software for schools, I wanted to trial an animation project, inspired by the quirky human and animal figurines, model wheeled carts and toys, all of terracotta, from the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilisation which clamour for clay...
Animation case study: Indus Valley figurines
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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
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The Bloody Code - Early Modern Crime and Punishment
Podcast
Between circa 1690 and 1820 the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty grew from 50 to over 200. This short podcast will help to explain why this trend developed.
The Bloody Code - Early Modern Crime and Punishment
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A treasure trove of local history - how to use your local record office
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
In her article in Primary History No 21, Jayne Woodhouse highlighted that the study of history needn’t be all about national events. Essentially it is a series of stories, often about ordinary people and their ordinary lives, which can be built up...
A treasure trove of local history - how to use your local record office
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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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Urban spaces: inner-city Leeds
Lesson Resources
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This is an account of a series of six lessons focusing on a local urban square. Teachers can adapt this to suit their own circumstances. The teaching took place in an inner-city Leeds primary school, with pupils from 48 different...
Urban spaces: inner-city Leeds
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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
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Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
Primary History feature
LGBT History Month was established in 2004. It not only raises awareness of discrimination still faced by the LGBT+ community but also celebrates LGBT+ people and their achievements. February is LGBT History Month and its theme this year was ‘History: Peace, Reconciliation, and Activism’.
Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
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Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
Primary History article
Alf Wilkinson discusses a book first published in 2008, and set in Ancient Egypt.
Ma’at’s Feather is the story of Qen, a young boy growing up in ancient Egypt. He is part of a farming family, and we discover how their livelihood is totally dependent on the River Nile...
Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
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War memorials as a local history resource
Primary History article
War Memorials Trust (WMT) is the charity that works for the protection and conservation of war memorials in the UK. It defines a war memorial as ‘any physical object created, erected or installed to commemorate those involved in or affected by a conflict or war' (WMT 2009, ‘Definition of a...
War memorials as a local history resource
