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Film: Germany 1945-1991: Introduction
Film series: Power and authority in Germany, 1871-1991
Germany as a divided and defeated nation is explored through the lens of how the two new Germanys rebuilt their States politically and culturally. Professor Anna Saunders reflects on the different inequalities that existed between the two states and how stability was established between political leaders, even when political dissent...
Film: Germany 1945-1991: Introduction
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Film: Social & Cultural Change
Film series: Power and authority in Germany, 1871-1991
How did a new Germany rebuild itself from the legacy of the Second World War both physically, emotionally and culturally? Professor Stibbe explores the silences of many households and how that influenced the student rebellion of the late 1960s. He also puts into perspective the cultural impact that the war...
Film: Social & Cultural Change
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Polychronicon 131: At your leisure
Teaching History feature
Leisure time - like time itself - is fluid, and keeps changing its social meanings. From a ‘serious' high political perspective there is no history of leisure and leisure is trivial. Such perspectives have long lost their grip on the historical imagination, of course, and we have had histories of...
Polychronicon 131: At your leisure
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Film: Gorbachev - Foreign Relations
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the USSR
Professor Archie Brown discusses how Gorbachev fundamentally reformed Soviet foreign policy, redefined relations with the West, fostered closer personal relationships with former adversaries and how he transformed the Cold War world.
He examines Gorbachev's policy towards Eastern Europe and the fall of the Iron Curtain, and looks at how his new foreign...
Film: Gorbachev - Foreign Relations
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Recorded webinar: Queer beyond London
Article
London has tended to dominate accounts of LGBTQ Britain… but how did local contexts beyond the capital affect queer identities and communities? This talk by Professor Matt Cook looks at Brighton, Plymouth, Manchester and Leeds to illustrate the difference locality makes to queer lives.
* Please note: while this webinar...
Recorded webinar: Queer beyond London
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Teach Environmental Histories network
Secondary history teachers' network
Teach Environmental Histories is a network that helps secondary school history teachers based in England to address young people’s concerns about the future of the planet. History has huge potential for educating pupils about the climate and ecological emergency. Crucially, the history that pupils learn in school can help them...
Teach Environmental Histories network
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The Aztecs & Spanish Conquest for GCSE
Briefing Pack
Ian Mursell set up Mexicolore in 1980 with his Mexican partner Graciela Sánchez and has worked since then with a wide variety of heritage and academic partners specialising in Aztec and Maya history. With the Aztecs now becoming a study unit on the OCR 2016 GCSE specification B, the Historical...
The Aztecs & Spanish Conquest for GCSE
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Film: Foreign Relations and Tudor Royal Authority – discussion
Development of Tudor Royal Authority film series
In this film Professor Sue Doran, Jesus College, University of Oxford and Professor Steven Gunn, Merton College, University of Oxford discuss the role foreign relations played in Tudor royal authority and the amount of power Tudor monarchs were able to exercise. The film will explore common threads and differences in foreign policy...
Film: Foreign Relations and Tudor Royal Authority – discussion
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Film: Mary I and Tudor Royal Authority
Development of Tudor Royal Authority film series
In this film Dr Anna Whitelock from Royal Holloway, University of London, discusses the life of Mary I, the first crowned Queen of England. Dr Whitelock looks at Mary's difficult early life, her submission to Henry VIII and the rise of a warrior princess. Dr Whitelock explores Mary as a courageous...
Film: Mary I and Tudor Royal Authority
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Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
Exemplar
Questioning can be used in assessing childrens historical skills, as this example shows.The children were all in Year 4, and were withdrawn from their mixed Year 3/4 class for this lesson. They had covered several aspects of National Curriculum history, including over the past year the Egyptians and a local...
Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
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Looking through a Josephine-Butler shaped window: focusing pupils' thinking on historical significance
Teaching History article
Christine Counsell draws upon her recent work in developing definitions and practice concerning pupils' thinking about historical significance. Here she tries out those ideas in relation to the 19th century campaigner against the Contagious Diseases Acts, Josephine Butler. Counsell explains why she developed her own set of criteria for structuring...
Looking through a Josephine-Butler shaped window: focusing pupils' thinking on historical significance
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Film: Discussion: The significance of the federal government to the Civil Rights Movement
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
Starting with the actions of the Supreme Court especially the...
Film: Discussion: The significance of the federal government to the Civil Rights Movement
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Film: Discussion: The significance of individuals, presidents and communities to the Civil Rights Movement
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
In this film individual civil rights campaigners' actions are discussed...
Film: Discussion: The significance of individuals, presidents and communities to the Civil Rights Movement
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Using feature films as a means of enhancing history teaching in the primary school
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Although I have always been fascinated by history and almost took it as my major subject at university, I have to admit that the bulk of my ‘knowledge' about historical people and events was shaped...
Using feature films as a means of enhancing history teaching in the primary school
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Film: Discussion: The post Civil Rights era
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
In this final section the activities of the key individuals...
Film: Discussion: The post Civil Rights era
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Film: Key individuals in the African-American Civil Rights Movement
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
The African-American Civil Rights Movement involved many significant individuals, some prominent and some less so.
In this film, Professor Brian Ward and Professor Joe Street of Northumbria University look at the role, significance and legacy of three key figures in the movement: Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X and Rosa...
Film: Key individuals in the African-American Civil Rights Movement
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Film: Discussion: What global events influenced the Civil Rights Movement?
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
The Civil Rights movement in the US was affected...
Film: Discussion: What global events influenced the Civil Rights Movement?
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From our branches: The Bristol Branch
Historian feature
It is always fascinating to find out about some of the many varied activities being undertaken by local branches of the Historical Association. Here Mary Feerick and Rob Pritchard relate the successes of the Bristol branch, which was only restarted in 2017. The branch has managed to engage local people...
From our branches: The Bristol Branch
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Approaches to the History Curriculum: Project based learning
Briefing Pack
Rationale/Origins
Project based learning has been around for decades; it is not a new idea. When we think back to the curriculum of the 1970s and early 80s, integrated Humanities was once again all the rage. As the Nuffield review of 2008 highlights "between 1975 and 1983, HMI tried to...
Approaches to the History Curriculum: Project based learning
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Ofsted Framework 2025: What does it mean for me?
Primary CPD in partnership with the Geographical Association
6 March 2026
Book Now
Supporting quality in primary history and geography
The Ofsted 2025 EIF and report card system are now in schools. The Deep Dive has gone but does this mean that subject expertise no longer matters? In fact the opposite is true. Subject remains at the heart...
Ofsted Framework 2025: What does it mean for me?
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
Article
Professor David Olusoga is a revered TV historian, a writer and a practising academic at Manchester University. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Historical Association's annual Medlicott medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to history.
The recipient of the medal provides the closing lecture of the HA's annual awards evening. Professor...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
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Local history and a sense of identity
Article
The history co-ordinator often finds some real challenges as well as opportunities in addressing local history in primary schools. The advantages are well rehearsed – making history relevant to the lives of the children and giving them an improved sense of identity and place through engagement with the ‘real thing’....
Local history and a sense of identity
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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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Podcast Series: Charles Darwin
Multipage Article
In this set of podcasts Project Director Professor Jim Secord and Associate Director Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project discuss the life, work and legacy of Charles Darwin.
Podcast Series: Charles Darwin
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Time travel to the Early Modern period...
Primary History article
This article describes how children in a German primary school explored some documents from the early modern period (seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) relating to the capture of merchant vessels. It makes use of a digital resource ‘The Prize Papers’ linked to the National Archives and found here: www.prizepapers.de The article also explains how...
Time travel to the Early Modern period...
