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Census 2021: using the census in the history classroom
Article
As we approach the next census in March 2021, we are reminded of what a rich historical source the census is. For historians, using the census can shine a light on particular people and places – a snapshot in time. Big stories can be told through a sharp local lens...
Census 2021: using the census in the history classroom
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South Asian Heritage Month
18 July–17 August
Want to know more about people’s cultural history? Listening to the stories they tell can offer a great way in. This year for South Asian Heritage Month stories ranging from the mythical to the musical are a key focus for learning about the people and cultures of South Asia. What...
South Asian Heritage Month
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Early Islamic civilisation
Primary History article
The Primary National Curriculum pinpoints Early Islamic Civilisation as Baghdad c. AD 900 - yet it was so much more. For approximately a thousand years after AD 700 there was an extraordinary amount of activity that radiated out from Baghdad and along a glittering crescent through North Africa and into...
Early Islamic civilisation
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To boldly go: exploring the explorers
Primary History article
Exploration and a curiosity about the world are key human characteristics that have shaped and continue to shape our behaviour. Nowhere is this more true than with younger children who relish the opportunity to investigate their environment and all it contains. Promoting this natural curiosity and introducing stimulating challenge should...
To boldly go: exploring the explorers
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Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
From the late 1960s until 1989 history was almost universally taught in primary schools as an element in integrated crosscurricular programmes, normally social studies or humanities.
The 1989/1990 National Curriculum: History radically changed this. It introduced...
Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
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Fascist behind barbed wire: political internment without trial in wartime Britain
Historian article
In the spring and early summer of 1940, the British government carried out a programme of mass internment without trial. On 11 May, the first of thousands of ‘enemy aliens' were interned. Many of these internees were refugees from Nazi Germany, often Jews who had fled Germany in fear of...
Fascist behind barbed wire: political internment without trial in wartime Britain
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Diversifying the curriculum: one department’s holistic approach
Teaching History article
In this article, Theo Woods shares the experience of one history department as they embarked on a substantial process of curriculum review and development. The department sought to address concerns that the range of history taught in their school, across the full seven years of students’ secondary experience, was too ‘traditional,...
Diversifying the curriculum: one department’s holistic approach
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Magic History of Roman Britain
Article
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The Magic History of Roman Britain by Jon Nichol provides a great deal of information about life in Roman Britain in story form. It tells the story of Sam and Jane,...
Magic History of Roman Britain
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The Historian 109: Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 The British Government's Confidential Files on the United States - A. D. Harvey (Read Article)
11 The President's Column - Anne Curry
12 Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair - Dianne Payne (Read Article)
18 The Charles Dickens Primary School Project - Alan Parkinson (Read Article)
22 Medieval ‘Signs and...
The Historian 109: Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'
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WWI and the flu pandemic
Historian article
In our continuing Aspects of War series Hugh Gault reveals that the flu pandemic, which began during the First World War, presented another danger that challenged people’s lives and relationships.
Wounded in the neck on the first day of the battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, Arthur Conan Doyle’s son Kingsley...
WWI and the flu pandemic
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In My View: Writing History
Article
First Steps
Writing history comes not at the beginning, but at the end of a process of selection and research. The first step is to choose a subject and develop some questions about it. Then comes the research into secondary and, much more excitingly, primary sources. Finally,the writing takes shape....
In My View: Writing History
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Using the back cover image: Westonzoyland War Memorial
Primary History feature
The image on the back cover is of the war memorial in Westonzoyland, Somerset. It consists of a concrete plinth with a metal shell-case set on top, on the front of which is a plaque which reads:
‘This shell was presented by Westonzoyland Parish Council to commemorate the memory of...
Using the back cover image: Westonzoyland War Memorial
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A view from the classroom: Teachers TV, The Staffordshire Hoard And 'Doing History'
Primary History article
When the Historical Association was approached by Teachers' TV to produce ‘Great Ideas for Teaching History' at Key Stage 2, it was inevitable that I, as a full time teacher on the Primary Committee, would have no escape. My school agreed I could take part, with the involvement of two...
A view from the classroom: Teachers TV, The Staffordshire Hoard And 'Doing History'
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Anglo-Saxons: a brief history
Reference guide for primary
Jump to: Anglo-Saxons in Britain | Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms | Areas to examine | Key concepts & links
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 community of teachers and subject...
Anglo-Saxons: a brief history
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India in 1914
Historian article
Rather as Queen Victoria was never as ‘Victorian' as we tend to assume, so British India in the years leading up to 1914 does not present the cliched spectacle of colonists in pith helmets and shorts lording it over subservient natives that we might assume. Certainly that sort of relationship...
India in 1914
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Assessment and Progression without levels
Primary History article
The new (2014) Primary History National Curriculum is finally upon us. The first thing you might notice is that the level descriptions have gone. These were first introduced in 1995 and became the mainstay for assessing pupil progression and attainment in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 across schools in...
Assessment and Progression without levels
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Teaching History 188: Representing History
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial (Read article for free)
03 HA Secondary News
04 HA Update: History in England’s primary schools: What do secondary history teachers need to know? (Read article)
10 ‘We are invisible!’ Ensuring Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children do not feel unseen in the history classroom – Richard Kerridge and Helen...
Teaching History 188: Representing History
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Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Research during the last eighty years has suggested that ‘time’ concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my recent research would suggest that temporal concepts...
Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
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Teaching History 54
Journal
Editorial 2
Historical Association News 3
Articles:
Computers in Secondary School History Teaching: an HMI view - Carole Baker and lain Paterson 7
Supporting the Future - MESU and the History Teacher - Sue Bennett 10
An Introduction to Computers in the History Classroom - John Simkin 12
GCSE Course...
Teaching History 54
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The digital revolution
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Developments in information technology continue at an extraordinary pace. Many young children will have little or no idea of what it was like to live in a world without mobile phones, computers and the Internet.
Most children will regularly make use...
The digital revolution
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Establishing a University-based HA Branch
Article
The following case study is based on my own experience of establishing the City of Lincoln HA branch, which is based at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, where I am a Senior Lecturer in History. The branch launched at the university on Wednesday 19th February 2014.
Members of the BGU...
Establishing a University-based HA Branch
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The Tudor Monarchy in crisis: using a historian's account to stretch the most able students in Year 8
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Contributors to this journal have long recognised that success in public examinations is at least partly achieved by carefully teaching in Key Stage 3. A critical component of A-Level is that students who wish to...
The Tudor Monarchy in crisis: using a historian's account to stretch the most able students in Year 8
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What's History got to do with me? Hooking a range of learners into History
E-CPD
*This is a fascinating unit containing lots of useful and relevant information. It was clearly ahead of its time, produced in 2006 and many of the suggestions and questions posed by Haydn, Kitson and Lomas are still current today.
There is much good work going on in History classrooms at...
What's History got to do with me? Hooking a range of learners into History
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Significance
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a department meeting. 'What’s the wisdom on…' provides history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of many years of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching.
To...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Significance
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Remembering and sharing an enthusiasm for history
Teacher's family honour his memory with a wonderful gift to support the HA Quality Mark
The role that many teachers carry out without realising is as an advocate for their subject, sharing their enthusiasm for learning with children day after day and year after year. The majority of those teachers do not have plaques put up for them or memorials in the town square, but...
Remembering and sharing an enthusiasm for history
