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Rescuing assessment from ‘knowledge-rich gone wrong’
Teaching History article
Christine Counsell sets out her concerns about the effects on history teaching of recent trends in secondary assessment practice. Situating her analysis within a long-term story of interplay between government policy, classroom practice and school leadership responses to inspection, Counsell sees new distortions emerging in the name of knowledge. She argues...
Rescuing assessment from ‘knowledge-rich gone wrong’
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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
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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Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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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World War II evacuation project - A living history experience
Primary History case study
Editorial note: The WOW factor. When we first received and read the World War II Evacuation Project case study we simply went WOW! It was genuinely mind-blowing. Below we publish the main sections of the report. They bring to life an invaluable, ground-breaking case-study of national significance.
The case-study involved...
World War II evacuation project - A living history experience
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Where might the Gunpowder Plot sit within the principles of the new model curriculum?
Primary History article
The government has proposed creating a model curriculum for history. This will contain a range of non-statutory and supplementary guidance to focus history teaching. In July 2022, terms of reference to identify principles and approaches underpinning the model history curriculum were published. There will be an advisory panel that will...
Where might the Gunpowder Plot sit within the principles of the new model curriculum?
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Storytelling the past
Primary History article
This article will demonstrate how to engage children through storytelling and how it can be used to develop their critical understanding of the past.
Why story?
Despite their common derivation, the words ‘history’ and ‘story’ suggest very different kinds of knowledge, the former carrying overtones of detached understanding of the...
Storytelling the past
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Developing a big picture of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
Primary History article
‘I have got to stop Mrs Jackson’s family arguing’: These were the words of a Year 3 pupil to her headteacher in reply to a simple question about what she was learning in history. What this pupil was doing was getting ‘a big picture’ of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and...
Developing a big picture of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
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Real Lives: A German captain’s perspective on the end of WWI
Historian feature
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are affected sto greater and lesser degrees by the big events that happen on a daily...
Real Lives: A German captain’s perspective on the end of WWI
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Teaching the Ancient Greeks: an introduction
Reference guide
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
Please note: this guide was written before the new National Curriculum...
Teaching the Ancient Greeks: an introduction
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Elizabethan times: Just banquets and fun?
Primary History article
Although much of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum relates to the period before 1066, we are expected to include 'a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066' (DfE, 2013,p.5)
This raises two questions:a) How can a post-1066 topic be related...
Elizabethan times: Just banquets and fun?
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Scheme of Work: Walter Tull
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 1 History (unresourced)
Pupils will look at the childhood and football career of Walter Tull, what happened to him when he fought in World War I and why he was different from most people of his time. They will compare his experiences to issues and people still relevant today including the double Olympian...
Scheme of Work: Walter Tull
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Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Film: An introduction to the African-American Civil Rights Movement
The US civil rights battles of the latter half of the twentieth century are a common part of popular culture - and yet the detail is often overlooked in favour of the headlines. It is a positive step that so many of us now know the names of Rosa Parks...
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
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Teaching about ‘these islands’ since 1066
Primary History article
This article builds on an earlier publication in Primary History Issue 89 which considered the history of ‘these islands’ before 1066 in the primary history curriculum. Both articles address the first aim of the National Curriculum which indicates that children should:
know and understand the history of these islands as...
Teaching about ‘these islands’ since 1066
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Teaching about the Kindertransport without the Kinder
Primary History article
The Kindertransport, literally ‘children’s transport’, was the rescue operation of almost 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish child refugees to Britain between December 1938 and the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.
Many of the Kinder (children) regularly share their experiences in primary schools, where their visit is regarded as...
Teaching about the Kindertransport without the Kinder
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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
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Making the most of the post-1066 unit
Primary History article
Making the most of the post-1066 unit: looking at continuity and change over 10,000 years
The ‘aspect or theme of British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066’ unit is designed to extend the period of study beyond 1066 to help pupils develop a coherent picture of British history....
Making the most of the post-1066 unit
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Studying the Maya
Article
Most pupils like history, but some struggle with aspects of reading and writing – how can we make history more accessible? This article explores some ways I have found useful in engaging pupils of all abilities. It will focus on activities that might be used in studying the Non-European Society...
Studying the Maya
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Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The study of life in Victorian Times with Key Stage 2 pupils, or aspects of life beyond living memory (now ‘the more distant past’) with children in Key Stage 1 is surely one of the richest and most popular historical themes. Some...
Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
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Evacuees: Children during World War II
Lesson Plan
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
This was a series of three lessons completed in the...
Evacuees: Children during World War II
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My favourite place: Lyme Regis, Dorset
Primary History feature
Claire Bradshaw describes why Lyme Regis is a very special place not just for its stunning scenery but for its educational value. It probably has a history dating back to earlier than any other article in the ‘My Favourite Place’ series – this one running into millions of years. ...
My favourite place: Lyme Regis, Dorset
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Visual image: boxing boys fresco from Ancient Greece
Lesson Plan
John Fines was working with a class of 28 Year 6 pupils, studying Ancient Greece.
John wrote: Challenge is what the Nuffield Primary History project is all about, and I wanted the class to think hard about the Greeks and to question sources. My learning objectives were for the children...
Visual image: boxing boys fresco from Ancient Greece
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Story-telling and discussion: KS1 exemplar: Columbus the explorer
Short Lesson Exemplar
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Setting the scene: what is an explorer?
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...
Story-telling and discussion: KS1 exemplar: Columbus the explorer
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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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How museum collections make ancient Egypt, and the people who lived there, real
Primary History article
It’s a safe bet that ancient Egypt is one of the most exciting topics on the primary history curriculum. But that can come with misunderstandings of a complex 3,000-year-long history and an accomplished group of people, embedded by the sensationalised, gory, and othering approach often shown when ancient Egypt features...
How museum collections make ancient Egypt, and the people who lived there, real
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Primary Scheme of Work: Indus Valley
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (resourced)
This unit on the Indus Valley Civilisation (2600-1900) BCE gives children the opportunity to study an ancient, 'lost' urban civilisation discovered by archaeologists in the Indian subcontinent, early 20th Century. The story of its discovery and the surviving evidence – architecture and artefacts – helps children understand how we can...
Primary Scheme of Work: Indus Valley
