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What made Cleopatra so special?
Article
Ancient Egyptian civilisation is rich and mysterious with distinctive visual imagery and strange animal-headed gods. The exotic differences of the society have always intrigued the western imagination and so they continue to ensure that this is a popular unit with both teachers and children. There are plentiful resources with new...
What made Cleopatra so special?
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What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
Primary History article
What is a trade directory?
Trade directories are the equivalent of the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages. They were published on a county or city basis every year and contain detailed descriptions of every village and town in the county. They also contain pages and pages of advertisements, for...
What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
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Dramatising Boudicca and the Celts
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links are outdated.
The story of Boudicca lends itself equally well to both history and drama. As a key part of work on ‘The Romans', it is an example of how history and drama when used together can contribute to...
Dramatising Boudicca and the Celts
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Pyramid building
Lesson Plan
How did the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids?
This lesson on pyramid-building includes visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning activities catering for a range of learning styles and abilities.
There are links with Science, Maths, and DT.
For background information see Building the Great Pyramid on the BBC website.
(These resources...
Pyramid building
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Artefacts in the neighbourhood
Primary History article
Alf Wilkinson uses an everyday object found near you – a post box – to develop your children’s history skills.
Look carefully at the picture. It is a familiar object in the neighbourhood. It is a postbox – there will be one (or more) near you. Go out and look...
Artefacts in the neighbourhood
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Roman market (KS1 or KS2)
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.
Shopping in a Roman townPart of 'The way of life of people who lived in the more distant past in Britain'....
Roman market (KS1 or KS2)
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School children work as archaeologists
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Adults find local history fascinating: the minutiae of life in the past and the way a familiar place has become what it is today capture our imagination. But children may be rather less eager to...
School children work as archaeologists
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The Olympics - politics, impact and legacy - its not just about the sport
Article
2024 is an Olympic Games year. Held every four years (with the exception of during the World Wars and Covid-19 restrictions), the modern Olympics is the largest international sporting event in the world. However, historically it has not always been just the sports that are played and the athletes’ performances...
The Olympics - politics, impact and legacy - its not just about the sport
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Exploring the Rollright Stones as part of your Stone Age to Iron Age study
Primary History article
Those teaching the Stone Age to Iron Age will be aware that the range of sources can be seen as rather narrow largely because of the absence of written records. It often means resorting to artefacts and monuments. This article explores one stone site and how it can be used as...
Exploring the Rollright Stones as part of your Stone Age to Iron Age study
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Alan Turing
Article
The man who helped win the war, invented computing and inspired artificial intelligence research
Editorial note: Alan Turing was a major figure in the cracking of the Germans' Enigma code at Bletchley Park which could well have helped shortened World War II by a couple of years. The more general...
Alan Turing
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Tudor Tempest
Lesson Plan
The pupils attend a large primary school where the classes are vertically grouped. The history focus for the summer term was the Tudors, although SATs three weeks into the term meant that the history emphasis was lost for a couple of weeks. Work on the Tudors began with explorations of...
Tudor Tempest
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The Olympics
HA Quick Guides
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games look set to be an expression of an ultra-modern Britain. Yet they boast a legacy that dates back to Ancient Greece. There is a heritage of rich material for the primary history subject leader to mine and slot in alongside existing or newly...
The Olympics
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Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
Primary History article
The Queen’s jubilee is a great opportunity to explore a huge range of concepts with EYFS children, and what better way to celebrate the experience than by creating your own celebration medals and to wear them in your own celebrations, as a continuation of the celebrations of so many years past....
Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
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Urban spaces near you: cross-curricular work
Lesson Resources
This material covers the following areas - see the page on each one:
History
Literacy
Art & Design
Science
Urban spaces such as parks and gardens offer a range of opportunities for children's learning. There children can investigate, observe, wonder, record and create.
Our urban spaces project presents ideas and...
Urban spaces near you: cross-curricular work
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A Victorian Christmas
A Victorian Xmas
The Historical Association In Alliance With Association for Language Learning. Cross-Curricular Unit: Year 5/6 French and History. A Victorian Christmas.
A Victorian Christmas
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Citizenship: The Romans in Britain study unit
Article
The english government has identified History in the national curriculum as one of the main vehicles for citizenship education. However, even if various issues in History exemplify citizenship concepts, learning about them during history lessons will not be sufficient to make the learning ‘citizenship education’. We have to move on...
Citizenship: The Romans in Britain study unit
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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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Ancient Greek Ideas: Science
Lesson Plan
Cross-curricular History and Science in the Literacy Hour
*(These resources are attached below)
Imagining what Greek science and a Greek science lesson at KS2 would be like
With the children raising questions and examining Ancient Greek ideas about our origins, this lesson has the potential to range widely and be...
Ancient Greek Ideas: Science
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Saxon Ship Burial
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.
The class had investigated life in Roman Britain. A visit to Dewa Centre in Chester together with class lessons and individual...
Saxon Ship Burial
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The End of Roman Britain
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.
Writing poems in the KS2 literacy hour about the Saxon destruction of a Roman town.
(These resources are attached below)
Children...
The End of Roman Britain
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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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Visual image exemplar: Using pictures of Sutton Hoo objects
Exemplar
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The Sutton Hoo ship burial contained a king's ransom in gold and jewellery. Indeed, it contained the worldly and spiritual goods needed for the king's voyage into the next world.
But...
Visual image exemplar: Using pictures of Sutton Hoo objects
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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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Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
Historian article
When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Mexico during the early sixteenth century there were many repercussions for the indigenous people. Their conversion to Christianity and the sacking of their temples are two of the most well known examples. However, it is often forgotten that the Aztecs had only a pictorial...
Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
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The strange death of King Harold II: Propaganda and the problem of legitimacy in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings
Historian article
How did King Harold II die at the Battle of Hastings? The question is simple enough and the answer is apparently well known. Harold was killed by an arrow which struck him in the eye. His death is depicted clearly on the Bayeux Tapestry in one of its most famous...
The strange death of King Harold II: Propaganda and the problem of legitimacy in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings
