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Working through drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Drama puts the fear of God into some teachers. Some, jolly sensible souls, just don't feel dramatic, fear wearing feathered hats and using funny voices; others know, deep in their hearts, that plays always lead to...
Working through drama
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Mini Scaffolds: Charts, Concept webs, Diagrams, Mini-Frames
Primary History article
The language of History develops subject content knowledge and associated vocabulary & phraseology, p. 30. Pupils can record, extend and develop their historical language through using a range of mini-scaffolds or frameworks that they flesh out with teacher guidance and support.
A class can build upon basic historical vocabulary through questioning,...
Mini Scaffolds: Charts, Concept webs, Diagrams, Mini-Frames
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Multi-modality and writing history
Primary History article
We all now live in the digital age.
The smart phone, kindle, i-pad and computer mean children are immersed and interact in a digital world of moving, still and spoken images. They are also able to communicate digitally socially: for example, Twitter and Facebook. Social media facilitate social as well...
Multi-modality and writing history
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'Hands On' Archaeology, A Case Study: Visiting the Archaeological Resource Centre (ARC) in York
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Developing an understanding of archaeology during historical studies can be important. It enables children to realise how we come to know and indeed understand about the past. Studying the work of archaeology helps develop vital...
'Hands On' Archaeology, A Case Study: Visiting the Archaeological Resource Centre (ARC) in York
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Case Study: Working with gifted and talented children at an Iron Age hill fort in north Somerset
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The phone call was over - manna from heaven. The opportunity to work with a ‘real' archaeologist on a ‘real' Iron Age site seemed far too good to be true. The cluster of eight South...
Case Study: Working with gifted and talented children at an Iron Age hill fort in north Somerset
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Drama - Choosing an approach
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
There is a range of drama strategies that we use all the time. The important point is to select a strategy with which you feel confident. For example, the collective making of a map by the...
Drama - Choosing an approach
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Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
Primary History article
From a visit to a local museum or heritage site, to using bushcraft skills to give pupils first-hand experience of what it might have been like to live in ancient times, teaching prehistory outside the classroom can really give this area of the curriculum the wow factor. The inclusion of...
Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
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Churches as a local historical source
Primary History Article
At Key Stage 1 children should learn about significant events, (e.g. the Great Fire of London) and about people and places in their locality. At Key Stage 2 they should learn about British settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots (e.g. Anglo-Saxon art and culture) and do a local history study (e.g....
Churches as a local historical source
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Making use of outstanding resources in museums
Primary History article
‘An embarrassment of riches' is not an inappropriate description of the new ancient Egyptian galleries in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Ashmolean has always been famous for its Egyptian collection, being the product of the work of Oxford academics for over a 100 years, but the problem in the...
Making use of outstanding resources in museums
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A creative Egyptian project
Primary History article
Ideally when teaching history, teachers will look to deliver projects that will engage and motivate, hopefully making the hard work of being creative stimulating and rewarding, based upon questioning, enquiry, investigation of sources and reaching conclusions grounded in the evidence.Ancient Egypt is one of those history topics which, because it...
A creative Egyptian project
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Using original sources
Primary History article
Why would I want those old books in my classroom?
It has always been recognised that good primary history is able to connect the past with the world the children currently inhabit. That is why focusing on schools can be so useful. If there is one experience the children have...
Using original sources
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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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Using cemeteries as a local history resource
Primary History article
Why visit a cemetery as part of the history curriculum? Local studies now feature prominently in the primary history curriculum for both key stages. This development challenges teachers to find easilyaccessible, inexpensive and relevant resources on their doorstep. A rich resource which has traditionally been overlooked is the local churchyard...
Using cemeteries as a local history resource
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Pupils as apprentice historians (1) - History Detectives
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The historian R.G. Collingwood inspired the Schools Council History Project [SC HP] that transformed the teaching of history in Britain from the early 1970s. The SC HP argued that pupils should be ‘apprentice' historians who developed the...
Pupils as apprentice historians (1) - History Detectives
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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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Primary History 90: Out now
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Read Primary History 90
As head of state the Queen stands as our figurehead, a role she has held for seventy years. During that time much has changed. For most of us reading this journal we have known no other sovereign, never had a time when the Queen was not...
Primary History 90: Out now
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Using diaries to stimulate children's understanding of the past
Primary History article
Children develop their understanding of the past through a range of historical sources of evidence. Written sources may provide different types of information for children to work from. Records such as census returns or street directories provide information about families and tradespeople living in a particular communities and old maps...
Using diaries to stimulate children's understanding of the past
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Local history: young children using written, printed and multimodal sources
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Jo Barkham shows how creative, challenging and stimulating teaching can engage even the youngest pupils in the reading of written and printed text and multi-modal sources. She continues her account in the next edition...
Local history: young children using written, printed and multimodal sources
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Hearts, Hamsters and Historic Education
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This is a reflection on a project, set up with a variety of different thoughts about education in its widest sense. Or, to put it another way, a primary school teacher's record of a unique...
Hearts, Hamsters and Historic Education
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The strange power of hats: using artefacts and role play in cross-phase, cross-curricular and community partnership work
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
It is a strange phenomenon of history education that the power of hats is little reported and little researched- so here is an article that says hats off to hats in history lessons, as well as hats off to artefacts, sound recordings...
The strange power of hats: using artefacts and role play in cross-phase, cross-curricular and community partnership work
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Two women linked across three thousand years of history
Primary History article
16 May 1976 – a warm sunny day as Zheng was to recall – began as a typical day on site and ended with a remarkable discovery. Zheng Zhenxiang was leading an archaeological team at Yinxu, Anyang in China looking for evidence of tombs from the Shang Dynasty period. This...
Two women linked across three thousand years of history
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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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What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
Primary History article
One of the many amazing things about History is that it can be found in everything; even the smallest or most mundane objects can provide an insight into how life has changed or provide a greater understanding of a different period in time.
Late October last year as the light...
What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
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One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
Primary History feature
Studland village is situated in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Purbeck is not an island in the normal sense of being surrounded by sea. However, it is surrounded by large hills to its north and has a coastline to its south, both of which cut it off from the...
One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
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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
