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Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
Primary History article
Decoding a manuscript, exploring glittering archaeology, imagining the emotions and sensations of a battle, and learning Old English vocabulary. These are all tasks that we, as teachers of medieval literature in the English Department at King’s College London, have assigned to our undergraduate classes.
However, Key Stage 2 children can...
Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
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Pupil voice: Democratising history lessons in Key Stage 1
Primary History article
Why is pupil voice important? Children are at the centre of everything we do and safeguarding their well-being and ensuring their progress across the curriculum is a key emphasis for schools. Recognising the importance of pupil voice in this is key.
Robin Alexander’s Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk (2017)...
Pupil voice: Democratising history lessons in Key Stage 1
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History and the early years: A view from the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
History gives colour and vitality to the curriculum. There are just so many engaging things to do. Without history there wouldn't be so much fun; whether in handling objects such as: the old wooden toys,...
History and the early years: A view from the classroom
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Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The issues surrounding the construction of a post-conflict history curriculum are complex. At its most basic level, the memory choice for a country emerging from mass violence is between remembering and forgetting, with...
Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
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How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
Primary History article
How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
The Integrated Planning Process
Introduction - Rigour ‘v' enrichment. Despite loathing the term rigour, an empty word that has numerous definitions depending on who you speak to, many teachers, Head teachers and curriculum leaders are seeking ways of integrating and...
How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'?
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One of my favourite history places: the Italian Chapel in Orkney
Primary History feature
One of my favourite places is the Italian Chapel on the tiny island of Lamb Holm on Orkney. It stands alone beside a concrete statue of St George, facing mainland Orkney across a stretch of water called Kirk Sound. It is approached from a road on a causeway which provides...
One of my favourite history places: the Italian Chapel in Orkney
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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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One of my favourite history places: Chichester's Roman walls
Primary History feature
One of my favourite places to explore are the Roman walls that encircle the city of Chichester. The walls help to offer glimpses into the distant past and act as a constant reminder of the legacy left by the Roman Empire.
One of my favourite history places: Chichester's Roman walls
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Women and space: reaching for the stars
Primary History article
The exploration of the heavens has drawn mankind since the dawn of time. Vast monuments reached to the stars marked with astrological key points. Astronomers sought to understand the movement of the universe. Since the twentieth century however this investigation has moved into space itself, pioneered by restless and inquisitive souls...
Women and space: reaching for the stars
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Learning to engage with documents through role play
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
First let me say that I did not research the materials used or plan this lesson. For this I must acknowledge, with thanks, that this is the work of my colleague, Mike Huggins, and the senior...
Learning to engage with documents through role play
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Researching History - Time travellers and Role Players
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘Ok children, time for history.'
Distant moans from the back of the class. Would I be surprised by this reaction? No, not if the teacher was diligently following the QCA guidelines for teaching history. Yes, if...
Researching History - Time travellers and Role Players
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Means and Ends: History, Drama and Education for Life
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
John Fines, Raymond Verrier and I frequently taught as a team trying to discover where drama work and history meet. We were interested in helping children get a grasp of past events which have influenced their...
Means and Ends: History, Drama and Education for Life
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Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges & Opportunities
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated
The last edition of Primary History published the first part of the report on the KS2 to KS3 transitions project. Part 1 illuminated the first four of produced eight key ideas or guiding principles for...
Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges & Opportunities
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History Coordinators' Dilemmas: Catering for the Gifted and Talented
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Gifted and talented in history? I can understand it in music and physical education, maybe in numeracy but surely not history? All curriculum areas have now been told that they have to identify such children...
History Coordinators' Dilemmas: Catering for the Gifted and Talented
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Thinking through history: Story and developing children's minds
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated.
Story is the crucial factor in children’s awareness of past times in their ‘mythic’ phase of mental development, see page 4. Everyone loves a story, stories ‘open out fresh fields, the illimitable beckoning of horizons to imagination…...
Thinking through history: Story and developing children's minds
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History in the Early Years: Bringing the Romans to life
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated.
Children arrive at school or nursery with their personal, unique mental ‘models’ of the world. the challenge for us is to expand these so that increasingly the pupils will be able rationally to make sense of the...
History in the Early Years: Bringing the Romans to life
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Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
Primary History article
Rachelle Blagdon leads history at Thomas Walling School – one that has already earned a gold Quality Mark. Impressing the assessor particularly was the way the school paid dual attention both to the motivation aspect of the subject and to effective curriculum planning. Four particular approaches were used to enhance...
Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
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Visual literacy: Look, talk, write - Using a picture to extend vocabulary
Primary History article
Editorial note: Primary History's theme edition on Visual Literacy, PH 49, Summer 2008, addressed the role of visual literacy in developing pupil language: spoken, enacted and written.
Introduction - words for pictures
Stimulus - child engagement
Some years ago, a friend's eight year old daughter arrived with a pack of...
Visual literacy: Look, talk, write - Using a picture to extend vocabulary
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Oral history, a powerful tool or a double edged sword?
Primary History article
We all agree that oral history is a particularly powerful and attractive method for children to gather evidence and appreciate the real life relevance of history. From the Early Years to Year 6, many of us look deliberately for the opportunities to bring a visitor into the classroom, who will...
Oral history, a powerful tool or a double edged sword?
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Teaching history through nursery rhymes in the foundation stage
Primary History article
Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum and some content is now outdated.
All teachers working within the foundation stage will, at some time, be using nursery rhymes in their classrooms. Their importance to early language development has long been acknowledged, particularly the way in which they contribute to...
Teaching history through nursery rhymes in the foundation stage
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Identifying the potential of history in teaching Citizenship at KS1 and KS2
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Following the publication of the QCA guide ‘Citizenship and PSHE at KS1 & 2’ (QCA:2000) which identified history as being a suitable vehicle for the teaching of the non-statutory citizenship framework in primary schools, and...
Identifying the potential of history in teaching Citizenship at KS1 and KS2
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Any place for a database in the teaching and learning of history at KS1?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Early in July of this year I was involved in a meeting at BECTA in which a lively discussion took place about whether ICT should be a requirement, or not, in the teaching of history at KS1. As those participating included representatives...
Any place for a database in the teaching and learning of history at KS1?
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Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
There is a huge range of moving image material that provides, or purports to provide, direct documentary coverage of many historical events over the last 105 years. You can access much that is suitable for primary children from television and the video...
Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
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Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Research during the last eighty years has suggested that ‘time’ concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my recent research would suggest that temporal concepts...
Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
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Whole-school planning for progression
Primary History article
The challenge for subject leaders and school leadership teams continues to be managing the tension between what history has to offer your vision for learning and your children's entitlement to a high-quality history education. The new national curriculum has ensured that this year you have had a close look at...
Whole-school planning for progression
