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History, citizenship and Oliver Stone
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
When is a work of art a work of history? How can we get our students to appreciate the difference without ignoring the overlap? How should we ask our students to approach the historical film...
History, citizenship and Oliver Stone
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The Vikings - Primary E-CPD
Primary e-CPD unit
The purpose of this unit is to provide for teachers' subject knowledge on the Vikings. This reflects a need for up-to-date and scholarly historical knowledge, but this also demonstrates that it is essential to see the Vikings as having diversified experiences and impacts over time in a variety of geographical contexts...
The Vikings - Primary E-CPD
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CPD events terms and conditions
Information
Please read these terms and conditions carefully before booking onto any of the Historical Association's [HA] CPD events. You should understand that by booking any of our CPD Events, you agree to adhere to these terms and conditions.
Please note that these terms and conditions are only applicable to the...
CPD events terms and conditions
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Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
HA policies
As a membership charity our purpose is to promote the study, teaching and enjoyment of history to the widest possible audience. We want everyone, regardless of background, to be able to engage with, debate, examine and shape history. As part of our ethos on diversity and inclusion we will not...
Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
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Primary Teaching Methods
Teaching Methods
Please note: this guide was written before the 2014 National Curriculum and some of the advice may no longer be relevant.
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...
Primary Teaching Methods
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Leading Primary History
Leading Primary History
Please note: this guide was written before the 2014 National Curriculum and some of the advice may no longer be relevant. For more up-to-date guidance visit our Primary Subject Leader area (available to Corporate Primary Members) or see:
Progression and assessment without levels
Progression from EYFS to KS3
Tracking pupil progress
Assessment and...
Leading Primary History
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HA activities and impact
10th November 2025
An understanding of history has the potential to change lives. The HA’s continuing work seeks to empower learners at every age and level to access high quality history education, inside and outside of formal learning contexts. We want everyone to be able to engage with, debate, examine and shape history.
In...
HA activities and impact
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Duffy's devices: teaching Year 13 to read and write
Teaching History article
Rachel Ward’s intriguing title seems a little out of place in an edition on teaching the most able. The point she makes, though, is that even our very brightest post-16 students need to be encouraged both to engage with the historiography surrounding their course and to learn to write with...
Duffy's devices: teaching Year 13 to read and write
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British Empire
Selected Articles and Resources
A selection of publications that link to the British Empire. See also our two podcast series The British Empire 1600-1800 and The British Empire 1800-present.
A Commercial Revolution: the rise of a trading empire (Classic pamphlet by Ralph Davis) The pattern of overseas trade is always in movement: new commodities are constantly appearing,...
British Empire
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Cunning Plan 99: 'a world study after 1900'
Teaching History feature
This unit could still become a trawl through two World Wars and then the Cold War (if you don't run out of time). So, when reviewing your planning why not take advantage of being at the turn of a century? Ask pupils what will the twentieth century be remembered for?...
Cunning Plan 99: 'a world study after 1900'
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Primary History 50
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
03 Editorial
05 In My View: History... about lives and living – Mick Waters (Read article)
07 In My View: primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective – Gail Weldon (Read article)
08 In My View: history, values education & PSHE – Hilary Cooper (Read article)
09 In...
Primary History 50
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Helping Year 9 evaluate explanations for the Holocaust
Teaching History article
‘It made my brain hurt, but in a good way': helping Year 9 learn to make and to evaluate explanations for the Holocaust
Why genocides occur is a perplexing and complex question. Leanne Judson reports a strategy designed to help students think about perpetration and evaluate and propose explanations for...
Helping Year 9 evaluate explanations for the Holocaust
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Triumphs Show 148.1: collaborating to commemorate Olaudah Equiano
Teaching History feature
How a drink in the bar at the SHP conference - and discovery of a shared interest in ICT - led to the campaign for a Blue Plaque for an eighteenth-century abolitionist.
What do the 1970 Brazil World Cup-winning team, Charles Darwin and Vanilla Ice all have in common? This...
Triumphs Show 148.1: collaborating to commemorate Olaudah Equiano
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JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
Teaching History article
Dale Banham and Russell Hall present a multi-faceted rationale for an in-depth study of the 1991 film, JFK. They treat it as an ‘interpretation’ in the National Curriculum sense, constructing a varied and meticulous learning journey towards its analysis. By the end of that journey pupils had examined the central...
JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
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The Medieval Empire
Classic Pamphlet
The subject of this pamphlet is one that, by general consent, takes a central place in European history in the middle ages. The history of the Empire, it has often been said, is co-terminous with the history of western Christendom; and Lord Bryce long ago described it as a ‘universal...
The Medieval Empire
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Move Me On 91: work with historical sources lacks focus
The problem page for history mentors
Problem: Mike Jones, student history teacher, is half-way through his PGCE year. He is making unusually good progress in his knowledge, understanding and practice with regard to the use of sources in history. He also appears to have no difficulty with classroom management and relationships with pupils. He easily creates...
Move Me On 91: work with historical sources lacks focus
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Do we need another hero? Rorke's Drift
Teaching History article
Do we need another hero? Year 8 get to grips with the heroic myth of the Defence of Rorke's Drift in 1879
Mike Murray shares a lesson sequence in which his students examined changing interpretations of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879. Building on earlier work on teaching interpretations...
Do we need another hero? Rorke's Drift
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Primary History 48
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
05 In my view: The serious business of comedy – Tony Robinson interviewed by Peter Vass
06 In my view: Means and Ends: History, Drama and Education for Life – Dorothy Heathcote (Read article)
08 History Coordinators’ Dilemmas: Drama, creativity, literacy and the curriculum – Tim Lomas
10 Think Bubble:...
Primary History 48
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Cunning Plan 102.1: teaching decolonisation and the end of apartheid
Article
Cunning Plan for teaching decolonisation and the end of apartheid to 13 and 14 year-olds. The rationale behind this teaching unit is manifold: first, it takes away the idea in the children’s minds that all that happened in the twentieth century is world war. Second, it is designed to appeal...
Cunning Plan 102.1: teaching decolonisation and the end of apartheid
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Primary History 37
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial
4 Primary Noticeboard
6 In My View: Migration: the search for a better life? – Katherine Hann (Read article)
10 Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A significant Victorian? – Penelope Harnett (Read article)
13 Helping students make sense of historical time – Keith C. Barton (Read article)
15 Ofsted Report...
Primary History 37
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Primary History 29
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial – Tim Lomas
3 Primary Noticeboard – Tim Lomas
5 Britain and the wider world in Tudor times – Hilary Claire (Read article)
7 ‘No one else knows this’: Scottish primary schools using ICT to investigate local history – John W Robertson (Read article)
9 Monitoring, evaluating and...
Primary History 29
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Primary History 33
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial
4 Primary Noticeboard
5 In My View: Revolting subjects? – Dr Grant Bage
7 Breadth and Balance within the primary history curriculum? – John Clements
8 History co-ordinators’ dilemmas – Karin Doull
10 QCA Update – Jerome Freeman
11 Multicultural teaching in Portugal: a perspective – Manuela Carvalho...
Primary History 33
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Primary History 35
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial
4 Primary Noticeboard
6 In My View: The Primary National Strategy and primary history – Maureen Lewis
8 A Quick Guide to Museums and Galleries on the Internet – Jo Peat
11 Identity Crisis: History through Science, strange bedfellows or obvious partners? – Anthony Richards (Read article)
13...
Primary History 35
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Primary History 38
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
05 Editorial
06 Primary Noticeboard
08 Primary History: your views
10 History and the National Primary Strategy — Kevan Collins (Read article)
12 Creativity, imagination and fun in primary history — Tim Lomas (Read article)
16 Engage, innovate, motivate with QCA's new website for history — Jerome Freeman and Jane...
Primary History 38
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Time's arrows? Using a dartboard scaffold to understand historical action
Teaching History article
Arthur Chapman presents a task-specific scaffold - a ‘dart' board - designed to teach students how to interrogate sources of information so that these become sources of evidence for particular claims about past actions, beliefs and aims. Chapman also uses his ‘dart' board to foster students' reflection on the degrees of...
Time's arrows? Using a dartboard scaffold to understand historical action
