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Responding to the latest Ofsted Consultation
22nd February 2019
This month Ofsted have issued a consultation on their new inspection framework entitled Education inspection framework 2019: inspecting the substance of education.
Over the past few years, the Historical Association’s surveys into history in English secondary schools have been showing how some schools have reduced opportunity and entitlement to study...
Responding to the latest Ofsted Consultation
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Polychronicon 154: Elizabeth I
Teaching History feature
Elizabeth I is admired today for her power dressing and her power portraits; her political acumen and her success in a man's world.
The adulation of Elizabeth started during her own lifetime when she was praised as a goddess and even as a celestial power. Elizabeth's semi-mythical status is reflected...
Polychronicon 154: Elizabeth I
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A history trainee nearing the end of their main teaching placement
HITT Film 2
This film has been produced to accompany materials in the History Initial Teacher Training units. It contains a Key Stage 3 history lesson and lesson debrief. The materials are not designed specifically to be examples of good practice; rather they are to promote discussion about good practice in teacher training....
A history trainee nearing the end of their main teaching placement
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Hitting the right note: how useful is the music of African-Americans to historians?
Teaching History article
Here is a wonderful reminder of the richness of materials available to history teachers. With ever greater emphasis being placed on different learning styles, it is a good moment to remind ourselves that we can cater for virtually all of them in our classrooms. This includes a preference for learning...
Hitting the right note: how useful is the music of African-Americans to historians?
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Immerse yourself in history
Information
The Historical Association [HA] is a registered charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Since 1906 we have brought together people who share an interest in the past, and work to further the study, teaching and enjoyment of history in all guises and forms: professional, public and popular.
As an independent charity we...
Immerse yourself in history
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Historical anniversaries 2023-24
3rd October 2023
Some things are important every year; others only seem to hit our radar when it’s a significant anniversary – think Bonfire Night versus The Battle of Waterloo. That is why we refresh and update our anniversaries calendar every year. For what is left of 2023 we have the 75th anniversary...
Historical anniversaries 2023-24
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Roman Baths
Lesson Plan
Please note: this lesson was produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. It is part of a full sequence of lessons available here.
The account tells how we recreated a Roman bath house in the Reception/Year 1 classroom during a ten-week unit learning about...
Roman Baths
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British-Irish Gypsy Traveller History (Part 1)
Podcast
In this first of two podcasts Dr Becky Taylor, Reader in Modern History at the University of East Anglia and Editor-in-Chief of 'History: The Journal of the Historical Association' is asked questions by Helen Snelson, Chair of HA Secondary Committee. The questions in part one focus on how Dr Taylor...
British-Irish Gypsy Traveller History (Part 1)
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'You be Britain and I'll be Germany...' Inter-school e-mailing in Year 9
Teaching History article
E-mailing is fast becoming our preferred means of communication and for good reason. It is immediate: we can fire off a few lines and receive a reply within seconds. It is also flexible: unlike a telephone conversation, we do not have to reply there and then; we can go away...
'You be Britain and I'll be Germany...' Inter-school e-mailing in Year 9
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Making history curious: Using Initial Stimulus Material (ISM) to promote enquiry, thinking and literacy
Teaching History article
The idea of gaining pupils’ attention, interest and curiosity at the start of the lesson with an intriguing image, story, analogy or puzzle has long been used by our best history teachers. Michael Riley, through writing and inset, popularised the term ‘hook’ and emphasised its special role at the start...
Making history curious: Using Initial Stimulus Material (ISM) to promote enquiry, thinking and literacy
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Reading Branch History
Branch History
Brief outline history of the Reading Branch of the Historical AssociationReading is one of the places to have had a branch before the First World War, between 1908 and 1911 as was shown in The Historian, ‘The Branches of the Historical Association 1906-2006'. The story of the current Reading Branch,...
Reading Branch History
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Post-War Japan
Modern Japan
In August 1945 Imperial Japan made an unconditional surrender to the Allies following the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima on the 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945. The surrender announced by Emperor Hirohito finally brought the fighting of the Second World War to an...
Post-War Japan
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Direct teaching of paragraph cohesion
Teaching History article
How do we help pupils to write better paragraphs without actually doing it for them? How do we break down the process of essay writing into smaller steps without taking away pupils’ sense of the essay as a whole? How do we give lower-attaining pupils models, structures and frames without...
Direct teaching of paragraph cohesion
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Unsung Heroes: The British Merchant Navy WW2
Unsung Heroes
The British Merchant Navy was a term that applied to the employees of British shipping companies whose vessels ranged from the sleekest ocean liners to obsolete tramp steamers. Merchant seamen already included contingents of Black, Asian and Arab sailors and the British Merchant Fleet was swelled between 1939 and 1945...
Unsung Heroes: The British Merchant Navy WW2
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Online CPD Unit: Creativity in the History Classroom
E-CPD
Oh no - not more extended writing! Firing pupil motivation through creative tasking.
This E-CPD unit considers the issues departments needs to consider in planning for both challenging and engaging history.
The example of teaching below comes from the Historical Association Key Stage 2-3 History transition project website (2005). The...
Online CPD Unit: Creativity in the History Classroom
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President Reagan
Redefining the American Dream
In this podcast Professor Iwan Morgan of University College London examines the impact and significance of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
Jimmy Carter came to the re-election bid with an America suffering from a serious bout of low morale. Inflation was 13% a year and unemployment was at 7%, Afghanistan was under...
President Reagan
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Cunning Plan 149.2: Exploring the Migration experience
Teaching History feature
Teaching a class of newly arrived immigrant teenagers from various backgrounds and ethnicities poses many interesting challenges: varied levels of schooling, varied levels of mastery in a new language, no common frame of reference, varied ways of understanding and making sense of the world and very varied ways of making...
Cunning Plan 149.2: Exploring the Migration experience
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Canterbury Branch History
Branch History
Although active between the wars, the Canterbury Branch had faded into oblivion by the 1960s.The arrival of the University of Kent at Canterbury brought about the Branch's revival in 1971-1972, led by Peter Roberts, Grayson Ditchfield and Donald Read, and a programme was arranged for 1972 -3. Among those on...
Canterbury Branch History
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Teaching History 74
The HA's journal for history teachers
7 The Aims of School History - John White
10 Beyond the Old Dichotomies: Some Reflections on Hayden White - Keith Jenkins
17 Teaching Post-Modern History: A Rational Proposition for the Classroom? - Peter Brickley
23 What is the Future for the History National Curriculum? - Frances M. Connelly
27...
Teaching History 74
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After the Uprising of 1956: Hungarian Students in Britain
Historian article
Much has been written during the last 50 years about the events leading up to and during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Less consideration has been given to the students who arrived in Britain as refugees. During the weeks following the Soviet intervention in Hungary around 25,000 people were killed...
After the Uprising of 1956: Hungarian Students in Britain
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Scheme of Work: Chronological Unit - Books Through Time
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (unresourced)
Through this unit, children can be introduced to the idea that books were extremely valuable in the past, the status symbol of the day. They will learn about how books were made in the past and that stories have been around long before there were books to put them in....
Scheme of Work: Chronological Unit - Books Through Time
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Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings Lessons
Lesson Plans
Please note: these lessons were produced as part of the Nuffield Primary History project (1991-2009) and pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.
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...
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Vikings Lessons
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content, references and links may be outdated. For more recent content see our Brunel scheme of work and George Stephenson scheme of work.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) have recently published new Schemes of Work for all subjects. Included within these...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
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Cunning Plan 105: Crusades enquiry
Teaching History feature
Jamie Byrom’s article ‘Using a concluding enquiry to reinforce and assess earlier learning’ (TH 99) offered a practical solution both to weak knowledge acquisition in Year 7 and to effective, worthwhile assessment. This enquiry follows the same model. The assumption is that pupils would be carrying out this enquiry at...
Cunning Plan 105: Crusades enquiry
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Teaching History 173: Out now
Journal news
Access Teaching History 173 here (free to HA Secondary Members)
Opening Doors
The theme for this edition of Teaching History draws part of its inspiration from calls for the school curriculum to give young people access to genuinely ‘powerful knowledge’: knowledge that will take them beyond the confines of their own...
Teaching History 173: Out now
