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Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
Primary History article
Recognising that most schools deliver history as separate units that are then divided into themes, Nick Mackintosh argues that this means a lack of a narrative thread, which can result in children struggling to analyse it effectively. A thematic history curriculum is much better at developing children’s understanding of chronology,...
Teaching primary history thematically – why it makes sense
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Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
Primary History article
In this article, Jo identifies a rationale for learning about this civilisation and addresses some of the ways it can be taught, especially with older primary children. It includes a comparative enquiry with Anglo-Saxons. She also highlights how recent research has developed a greater understanding of the Maya and, at...
Teaching the Maya in upper Key Stage 2
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Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
Historian article
In the pre-modern world, the ability to speak and to hear were fundamental to participation in civil society. How, then, could prelingual deaf people survive and thrive? Rosamund Oates, author of the recently published Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England, charts the long struggle for the recognition of sign...
Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
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Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
Historian article
Throughout history, war has been one of the great producers of disability, and the disabled veteran has often provoked feelings of pride and pity. In this article, Christopher Thomas Goodwin explores the multiple meanings of the disabled soldier in Nazi Germany...
Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
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On-demand webinar: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understanding
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Session 5: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understandingPresenter: Ailsa Fidler and Simon Lea
AI-driven immersive history is entering our classrooms in ways previously unimaginable. Through interactive simulations, image and video generation and storytelling, students will be able to explore historical events and...
On-demand webinar: Immersive history, AI, and the making/unmaking of student understanding
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In conversation with David Turner
Historian feature
Disabled people have always been present in Britain’s past. Yet they have often appeared only at the edge of historical narratives: as recipients of charity, as objects of medical attention, as casualties of war or work, or as figures in stories told by institutions rather than by themselves. In Disability:...
In conversation with David Turner
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Teaching History 185: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 185: Missing stories
In their prologue to What is History Now? (published earlier this year to mark the 60th anniversary of E.H. Carr’s seminal work), Helen Carr and Susannah Lipscomb both admit to owning a ruler of rulers: a list of monarchs of Britain from the year...
Teaching History 185: Out now
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Virtual Branch Recording: Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War
Article
Jane Rogoyska tells the story of the Hôtel Lutetia, the only ‘grand’ hotel on the city’s bohemian Left Bank, serving as a meeting place for artists, musicians and politicians. André Gide took his lunch here, James Joyce lived in one of its rooms, Picasso and Matisse were regular guests. But...
Virtual Branch Recording: Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War
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Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
Primary History article
Children in nursery and reception classes do not, of course, learn history. They meet the subject for the first time when they start Year 1. However, what children learn – and how they learn – in EYFS is important for preparing them to learn history. This goes beyond building knowledge...
Developing historical understanding across all areas of the EYFS framework
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On-demand webinar: Creating an inclusive and equitable history curriculum
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Session 3: Creating an inclusive and equitable history curriculum
Key topics:
Attending to the scope of a history curriculum
Evidencing inclusive practice through curriculum design and classroom culture
Story as a tool for inclusion
This session focuses...
On-demand webinar: Creating an inclusive and equitable history curriculum
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Ancient Sumer
Primary History article
For many teachers and children alike, Ancient Sumer will be completely new. Although Sumer has always been an option for teaching about Early Civilisations, the fame of Ancient Egypt, as well as being a tried-and-tested topic, has meant that Sumer has perhaps been overlooked. There is little danger of failing...
Ancient Sumer
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On-demand webinar: From implementation to impact: evidencing learning and progress in history
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Session 2: From implementation to impact: evidencing learning and progress in history
Key topics:
Defining and identifying 'impact' in the history classroom
Assessing progression in substantive and disciplinary knowledge (the role of formative and summative assessment)
This...
On-demand webinar: From implementation to impact: evidencing learning and progress in history
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Making substantive concepts (do the) work
Teaching History article
Several years back, Alistair Dickins and Tommy-James Alexander realised they wanted to incorporate explicit consideration of substantive concepts into their Key Stage 3 teaching, to enable students to make sense of and order information about the past and to offer students a usable language that would support their historical reasoning. In reality,...
Making substantive concepts (do the) work
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Lesson sequence: Muslim Tommies - taster lesson
Article
This series of lessons has been designed to teach students something of the role of Muslim soldiers in the British Army in the First World War. By working with what remains of the War and how the Muslim contribution has been remembered, students will learn that the narrative is more...
Lesson sequence: Muslim Tommies - taster lesson
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Lesson sequence: Muslim Tommies
Lesson sequences
The first lesson of this sequence is available free to all secondary members here.
This series of lessons has been designed to teach students something of the role of Muslim soldiers in the British Army in the First World War. By working with what remains of the War and how the Muslim contribution...
Lesson sequence: Muslim Tommies
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Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
Article
In this webinar, Professor Rosamund Oates shares her research for her new book Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England (2026). Professor Oates is an expert in the historical cultures of early modern England and is passionate about exploring previously unknown stories of deaf and disabled people, using rigorous scholarly...
Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
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Using the concept of place to help Year 9 students to visualise the complexities of the Holocaust
Teaching History article
Inspired by the work of the social and cultural historian Tim Cole, Stuart Farley decided to look again at the way he teaches the Holocaust. He wanted to focus on the geographical concept of place as a way of enabling his Year 9 students to build far more diverse narratives,...
Using the concept of place to help Year 9 students to visualise the complexities of the Holocaust
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Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
Historian feature
In this article, Rob Pritchard reflects on his long-standing engagement with the Black Country Living Museum, exploring how visits to this ‘living history’ site transformed his approach to teaching history...
Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
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Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
Article
In this webinar historian Shane O’Rourke – a specialist in late-Imperial Russian society and ethnicities, including the Cossacks – explores society under the last three Tsars, examining Russification in the western Russian borderlands, Russian settler colonialism, the Caucasus and deportation, and current historiographical trends.
Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
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What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
Primary History article
In this article, Karin Doull examines some characteristic features of the Indus Valley Civilisation and considers what these might tell us about this fascinating, less well-known empire...
What is characteristic of the Indus Valley Civilisation?
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to significance
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 4: Practical approaches to significance
This session will show teachers how to introduce the concept of significance to children using both individuals and events. It will give ideas of units around individuals and events and how to move beyond significance...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to significance
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Doing history: A historian in the Round Tower
Historian feature
In this article Michael McLaughlin explains how he felt quite intimidated initially at the prospect of visiting the Royal Archives in the ‘fortress’ of Windsor Castle. However his research there proved to be both enjoyable and productive, as he discovered fascinating insights into the royal visit to Plymouth at the height...
Doing history: A historian in the Round Tower
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 3: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
This session will give teachers tips on how to explore similarity and difference in a meaningful way in the primary classroom. It will look at introducing the concept in Key Stage 1 to...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to similarity and difference
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On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to change and continuity
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
Session 2: Practical approaches to change and continuity
This session will show practical ways to introduce change and continuity to children, starting from the basics of change between a time in the past and today; to change and continuity within and...
On-demand webinar: Practical approaches to change and continuity
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Primary History 89: Out now
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Read Primary History 89
Welcome to Primary History 89! It is always a joy to work with people who share a love of history, and who engage with history learning and teaching in so many different ways. One of the things I love is everyone’s willingness to share their knowledge,...
Primary History 89: Out now
