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The Roaring Twenties: teaching a decade of change across Key Stages 1 and 2
Primary History article
This article explores how one topic can be used in different ways to support historical understanding at Key Stage 1 or Key Stage 2. The themes highlighted could link into possible golden threads to enable connections to be made across a school’s curriculum. The ‘Roaring Twenties’ also provide a real...
The Roaring Twenties: teaching a decade of change across Key Stages 1 and 2
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 101
The British Civil Wars; Young Quills 2025
Poster 1: The British Civil Wars
Poster 2: Young Quills 2025
Pull-out posters: Primary History 101
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 77
Posters: Fun across time and Write your own historical fiction
1. Fun across time; 2. Write your own historical fiction
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 77
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 78
Investigating the Shang Dynasty and History in the primary curriculum
1. Investigating the Shang Dynasty; 2. History in the primary curriculum - what does it offer?
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 78
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 76
Posters: Communication and Sutton Hoo helmet
1. Communication Across the Ages; 2. The British Museum's Sutton Hoo Helmet
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 76
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 75
Posters: Sources, and How to read a house
1. How to 'read' a house; 2. What sources can we use to learn about railways?
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 75
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History through connecting classrooms in Bradford and Peshawar, Pakistan
Primary History article
Editorial note: In this inspiring, teacher-led, crossphase project, pupils and teachers from eight schools in Bradford and Peshawar shared and learned about the histories of Bradford and Pakistan. The British Council’s Connecting Classrooms Scheme funded the project. The article below focuses on the primary dimension.
In 2008 three representatives from Bradford...
History through connecting classrooms in Bradford and Peshawar, Pakistan
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Britain on pause: remembering the 1926 General Strike
Primary History article
In this article, Kate Rigby looks back at the 1926 General Strike and considers how this could be used to explore significance, cause and consequence in Key Stage 2...
Britain on pause: remembering the 1926 General Strike
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 99
Kate Greenaway; Kate Greenaway Medal timeline
Poster 1: Kate Greenaway;
Poster 2: The Kate Greenaway Medal (now the Carnegie Medal for Illustration) – timeline
Pull-out posters: Primary History 99
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 97
Paris Olympics; Parks and gardens in Britain since 1066
Poster 1: Paris Olympics 1924
Poster 2: Parks and gardens in Britain since 1066
Pull-out posters: Primary History 97
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Your Local Railway: a local history investigation in Key Stage 2
Primary History article
In this article Tim Lomas discusses one of the best resourced themes you can find: your local railway.
Railways make one of the best themes for a historical study. No place has ever been far from a railway station even if Dr Beeching wiped out one-third of the network in...
Your Local Railway: a local history investigation in Key Stage 2
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'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As a pre-Plowden primary teacher who queued to get my copy of that report in 1967 and as a contributory author to the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2009) forty-two years later I can claim, not an...
'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
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Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
Primary History article
In this article Karin Doull looks at the 165th anniversary of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Our treatment of our most popular pets is reflective of society in a given time and Karin highlights several ways in which the history of Battersea can be used to spotlight different aspects of...
Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
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Introducing the Empire through coins
Lesson Plan
This coins lesson introduces children to the complex and controversial subject of the British Empire in a practical, hands-on way.
(These resources are attached below)
The lesson can stand alone or form an introduction to an in-depth study of empire, immigration and emigration. It overlaps usefully with geography and citizenship....
Introducing the Empire through coins
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
Coronations
Poster 1: What continuities and change can you see in coronations from the distant to recent past?
Poster 2: Some objects used or presented at a coronation
Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
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Anniversaries: The Coventry Blitz and the Grave of the Unknown Soldier
Primary History article
This Autumn we remember two events related to the impact of war and how people have reacted to them. The first anniversary remembers the Nazi devastation of Coventry 80 years ago on 14 November 1940 and the second event relates to the body of the ‘Unknown warrior’ who was laid...
Anniversaries: The Coventry Blitz and the Grave of the Unknown Soldier
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Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
Primary History article
The Abbasid Caliphate stretched from North Africa across to Afghanistan and the North West Frontier. Within the caliphate there were movements of people, goods and ideas. The golden period of this early Islamic caliphate was around 900 AD. As the caliphs were building a major trading empire across the Middle...
Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
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Writing books for young children about the First World War
Article
It is hardly surprising that there are very few books for young children which tackle such a difficult subject as the First World War. In considering our approach, we knew we had to balance two distinct considerations – being absolutely true to the facts, yet, being sensitive to the effect of...
Writing books for young children about the First World War
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Time and Place; Using a Local Historical Site with Key Stage 2 and 3
Time and Place
English Heritage and the Historical Association have teamed up to provide this great new CPD guide to getting the most out of local historical sites with your classes. This easy to follow unit provides the basis for an entire unit of local study using the built heritage around you. Examples...
Time and Place; Using a Local Historical Site with Key Stage 2 and 3
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Disability in primary history teaching
Primary History article
This article is based on a session by Bev Forrest and Mel Jones at the HA Conference in May 2024. The central concern is to support teachers to weave the experiences and lives of disabled people in the past into the primary curriculum. It looks at possible opportunities in EYFS, Key Stage 1...
Disability in primary history teaching
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How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
Primary History article
There is no question that the medieval period (no matter what timespan it claims) offers plenty of fascination for the primary pupil. It also allows some continuity with the period up to 1066 which forms the bedrock of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum. With opportunities to cover the medieval...
How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
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The Government of the Roman Empire
Classic Pamphlets
The Government of the Roman Empire, as everyone knows, was autocratic, and, like all autocracies, it was ‘tempered by assassination' or by military revolution. The emperor ruled through an imperial service, at once civil and military, in which several grades, corresponding to the social classes of the empire, were always...
The Government of the Roman Empire
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Teaching local history through a family
Article
The aim of this article is to teach local history through the prism of a local family. History is primarily about people. Using a family who lived in the locality over a large number of years, especially if they impacted considerably on that locality, can help develop an understanding of...
Teaching local history through a family
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The Standing Stone
Article
‘The Standing Stone’ story and the activities around it developed from several different starting-points. One was the requirement in the 2014 National Curriculum for history at Key Stage 2 for children to be taught prehistory, specifically about ‘changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’, with Bronze...
The Standing Stone
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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
