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Join and explore all you love about history
Information
HA membership starts from as little as £39.50 at concessionary rate, and £59.50 at individual rate. You can also get two extra months for free by quoting the code OL19 over the phone.Call us on 0300 100 0223 or join online today
Discover local branch talks and visits
With over 45 vibrant local branches across the...
Join and explore all you love about history
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Why essay-writing remains central to learning history at AS level
Teaching History article
Richard Harris challenges those who play down the essay in their teaching of the new AS Level. He argues that essay-writing embodies historical thinking and that it is therefore an essential tool for developing students’ understanding of history as an opinion-forming, judgement making process. Students need to practise developed, evidential...
Why essay-writing remains central to learning history at AS level
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2025 - Dr Christine Counsell
Dr Christine Counsell
The Historical Association's Medlicott Medal 2025 was awarded to Dr Christine Counsell. The award seeks to recognise individuals from a diversity of backgrounds in their service to history. Read more about Christine, her work and her award here.
As is the custom, Dr Christine Counsell received her award and presented her...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2025 - Dr Christine Counsell
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Romani History
Podcast
In this podcast Professor Eve Rosenhaft of the University of Liverpool looks at the history, diversity and development of the Romani community across Europe. She examines the role and influence of the Romani as part of European culture and history, the historic challenges they have faced and the rise of...
Romani History
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The Dramas of History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Mantle of the Expert [MoE] dramatic system works quite simply whereby classes are first of all invited to imagine. Within this imagined world - the class view their world through the eyes of other people...
The Dramas of History
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The Historian 160: Out now!
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 160: Sport in History
This edition of The Historian has a focus on sport in history. A story told by Duncan Stone in his article here suggests that this particular theme may need some justification, as an eminent professor dismissed a doctoral study of the history of cricket...
The Historian 160: Out now!
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Developing effective collaboration between schools and universities
Teaching History article
Sarah Longair launched a collaborative project between school history teachers and university historians in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, Longair and her teacher colleagues, Kerry Milligan and Emma McKenna, share how they used online collaboration to develop a flexible and practical approach to school–university collaboration, and...
Developing effective collaboration between schools and universities
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An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
Teaching History article
‘Much to learn you still have!' An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
How can history teachers structure learning pathways through historical content in ways that engage and challenge all pupils, that enable them to work at an appropriate pace and that also encourage pupils to self-assess and...
An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning
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Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
Primary History article
The Key Stage 2 Primary History Curriculum sets ambitious challenges for pupils: "…They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge...
Using museum and heritage sites to promote higher-level learning at KS2
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On-demand webinar: Helping the past take shape with historical enquiry
Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
Session 5: Helping the past take shape with historical enquiry
This session focuses into enquiry and on second order concepts. It offers practical advice to how second order concepts can be introduced in a way that is historically rigorous. We will explicitly address...
On-demand webinar: Helping the past take shape with historical enquiry
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Chronology through ICT
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Introduction: Research into chronological understanding
Chronological understanding is both one of history's most important disciplinary organising concepts (Lee and Shemilt: 2004) required for developing a full understanding of history, and certainly one of the most researched, though often with a broader remit...
Chronology through ICT
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The Historian 73: Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles:
6 Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English people - David Rollason (Read article)
11 Late Medieval Taxation Records - Peter Mackie (Read article)
16 Joseph Priestley’s American Dream - W. A. Speck (Read article)
24 Opposition and Resistance in the GDR - Dominik Geppert (Read article)
31 ‘Savages and...
The Historian 73: Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
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History Teacher Development Programme
Spring 2026 cohort
The History Teacher Development Programme is an online course aimed at history teachers who want to re-focus their attention on teaching ambitious and rigorous history.
Are you a relatively new teacher coming to the end of your ECT years?
Are you a more experienced teacher who wants to re-engage with...
History Teacher Development Programme
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Out and About: Newcastle’s 1650 Witch Trial
Historian feature
A.D. Bergin’s research for a work of historical fiction led him to Newcastle, where one of the largest witch trials in English history took place in 1650. Despite the scale of the proceedings, the event remains much less well known than the infamous Pendle trials or Matthew Hopkins’ East Anglian witch hunts.
Out and About: Newcastle’s 1650 Witch Trial
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History Teacher Development Programme
Autumn 2025 cohort
The History Teacher Development Programme is an online course aimed at history teachers who want to re-focus their attention on teaching ambitious and rigorous history.
Are you a relatively new teacher coming to the end of your ECT years?
Are you a more experienced teacher who wants to re-engage with...
History Teacher Development Programme
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Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
Historian article
Kateryna Petrova explores the history and evolution of street art, especially graffiti and murals in Ukraine from the Soviet era to the present day. She traces the transformation of street art from a forbidden and persecuted activity to one coordinated with city authorities and embraced by the public. She also...
Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
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History Teacher Development Programme
Spring 2025 cohort
The History Teacher Development Programme is an online course aimed at history teachers who want to re-focus their attention on teaching ambitious and rigorous history.
Are you a relatively new teacher coming to the end of your ECT years?
Are you a more experienced teacher who wants to re-engage with...
History Teacher Development Programme
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Students’ local history stories
Multipage Article
One of the strengths of the HA is our broad interest in all areas of history. So many history themes and narratives focus on the big issues, but for many of us, history starts in the local. That is why we introduced Local History and Community Month for each May...
Students’ local history stories
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Making History Accessible
Multipage Article
My students struggle with...
Every student has an entitlement to learn history and to high quality history teaching. In this section you will find support for helping students who struggle with specific aspects of learning history.
For each aspect of learning history that students struggle with you will find:
A...
Making History Accessible
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On-demand webinar: Developing subject knowledge as a mentor
Mentoring beginning and early career history teachers in the secondary school
Mentoring beginning and early career history teachers in the secondary school
Session 1: Developing subject knowledge
This first webinar will begin with the question: What do beginning and early career history teachers need to know about history? It will explore the substantive and disciplinary subject knowledge that is essential for...
On-demand webinar: Developing subject knowledge as a mentor
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 69
Britain and World timeline 4000-2000BC, and key primary historical terms
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 69
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Chartered Teacher of History
Multipage Article
The Chartered Teacher of History status (or CTHist) confers a distinction on its holder in recognition of a high level of commitment to ongoing professional development of historical knowledge and age-appropriate history pedagogy. It follows the same rigorous standards as other successful Chartered Teacher schemes.
Chartered Teacher of History (CTHist)...
Chartered Teacher of History
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The importance of history
Article
The importance of history: Powerpoint presentation from the Regional Subject CfBT/HA ConferencesStarting point. Creating a departmental vision.The construction of any curriculum begins with questions about the purpose and philosophy of the curriculum. The new orders for history offer departments a ready made statement of history's importance and purpose.
The importance of history
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History supporting global learning
Primary History article
I am the teaching head of a small village primary school, Hawkshead Esthwaite Primary, in Cumbria. We have, for the last year been one of the first Centres for Excellence for the Global Learning Programme (GLP).The GLP is a Department for International Development (DFID) initiative which began in September 2013...
History supporting global learning
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AS & A2 History
Article
My complaints about the new AS/A2 specifications have been reported elsewhere,1 but below I outline my main concerns regarding the new examination system, which I see as a missed opportunity to introduce a 16-19 History curriculum that meets the needs of young people in the twenty-first century. The Curriculum 2000...
AS & A2 History
