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Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
Primary History article
Decoding a manuscript, exploring glittering archaeology, imagining the emotions and sensations of a battle, and learning Old English vocabulary. These are all tasks that we, as teachers of medieval literature in the English Department at King’s College London, have assigned to our undergraduate classes.
However, Key Stage 2 children can...
Blending history and creative writing: imagining a lost Anglo-Saxon poem
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Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
Historian feature
In what has become a very a topical article that was commissioned in late 2019, Jill Sudbury explores some of the known graves of the enslaved and formerly enslaved throughout Britain, and asks for help in recording others as yet unknown.
Along the bleak shore of Morecambe Bay, beyond the...
Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
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Migration into the UK in the early twenty-first century
Historian article
Sam Scott and Lucy Clarke explore the data covering more recent migration to the United Kingdom, most especially from the EU. They discover that since 2000 migrant destinations have changed. No longer do migrants head exclusively to the big cities and industrial areas, but to rural areas, like Boston in...
Migration into the UK in the early twenty-first century
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How a history club can work for you and your pupils
Primary History article
Bev Forrest writes: As part of my role as a Historical Association Quality Mark assessor I am privileged to visit schools across the country. In the autumn of 2019, I ventured out into Essex to carry out an assessment at Dilkes Academy. I was delighted to recommend gold status for...
How a history club can work for you and your pupils
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What is interesting about the interwar period?
Article
The years between the Armistice of November 1918 and the German attack on Poland in September 1939 were undoubtedly a period of massive transformations. Public appetite to learn about specific aspects of this era remains strong. The making of communist rule in revolutionary Russia, the tribulations of Weimar Germany, the rise...
What is interesting about the interwar period?
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Back to basics: what does a good history lesson look like?
Primary History article
The new emphasis from Ofsted on the importance of the foundation subjects has meant a very welcome renewed interest in history and how it is taught. For years the dominance of literacy and numeracy in the curriculum has meant that time for foundation subjects has at best been compressed, and...
Back to basics: what does a good history lesson look like?
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How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
Primary History article
There is no question that the medieval period (no matter what timespan it claims) offers plenty of fascination for the primary pupil. It also allows some continuity with the period up to 1066 which forms the bedrock of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum. With opportunities to cover the medieval...
How can we teach about medieval Britain in primary schools?
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One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
Primary History feature
Studland village is situated in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Purbeck is not an island in the normal sense of being surrounded by sea. However, it is surrounded by large hills to its north and has a coastline to its south, both of which cut it off from the...
One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
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Primary History 86
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Editorial (Read article for free)
05 HA Primary News
06 HA Update
10 History in the news: George Floyd protest in Bristol: Colston statue toppled – Paul Bracey (Read article)
14 Developing chronological understanding and language in the Early Years and Foundation Stage – Damienne Clarke (Read article)
18 All the fun of the...
Primary History 86
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Black Death to global pandemic: London then and now
Historian article
Christine Merie Fox compares the impact of the Black Death on fourteenth-century London with our present-day experience.
In 1347, a terrifying disease was carving a path from the East into Northern Africa and Europe. Its entry point into Europe was the south of Italy, via merchant ships from the Black Sea. The...
Black Death to global pandemic: London then and now
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My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
Historian feature
Richard Stone introduces us to a quiet neighbourhood in Bruges which has played its part in the development of women’s independence.
Close to the Minnewaterpark, on the fringe of the bustling historic centre of Bruges, with its medieval buildings and atmospheric cobbled streets, the Beguinage is a tranquil haven. Cross the...
My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
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On Black Lives Matter
Article
2020 has been an interesting year in many ways – both as a year to make history and one that has sought to tackle many representations of the past. The Black Lives Matter campaign that has taken on new energy across the globe in response to the killing of a...
On Black Lives Matter
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Causation
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a brand-new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Causation
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What is interesting about the world wars?
Article
In the past, the two world wars have been mainly studied as military history, focused on armies, campaigns and battles. Historians have concentrated on wars in Europe and in particular on the Western Front in 1914–18 and on the war with Nazi Germany in the west. This has given rise...
What is interesting about the world wars?
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My Favourite History Place: Mandala House
Historian feature
Many myths surround David Livingstone and in this part of the world more myths about the man abound than perhaps anywhere else. We can only speculate on whether he fought off lions with his bare hands, shamed slave-traders into letting their slaves go with just a few words from the scriptures...
My Favourite History Place: Mandala House
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 1)
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Enquiry questions (Part 1)
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Resourcing sources
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
As a subject leader, are you often asked to provide historical objects and other documentary sources to support your colleagues with the teaching of history, but don’t know where to start looking? Well – read on!
Teachers need to give children experience of handling a range of sources of information....
Resourcing sources
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Film: The significance of advisers – 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 examine the role and importance of royal advisers to the developement of Tudor Royal Authority.
If you're unable to see the film below, please use the link for your Membership type:Historian members |...
Film: The significance of advisers – discussion
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Film: An Introduction to Lesson Planning (Parts 1-5)
Teaching History for Beginners webinar series
This film continues our Teaching History for Beginners filmed webinar series. In this two part film, Rachel Foster (teaching associate and secondary PGCE lead at the university of Cambridge) explores the key principles and processes of lesson planning for new teachers. View the second part here.
This series is designed to support beginning history...
Film: An Introduction to Lesson Planning (Parts 1-5)
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Year 9 use sources to explore contemporary meanings and understandings of appeasement
Teaching History article
After reflecting on the difference between his study of source extracts at university and how he was using source extracts in the classroom, Jonathan Sellin went in search of a new way to help his pupils to situate sources in context. Finding inspiration in the work of intellectual historian Quentin...
Year 9 use sources to explore contemporary meanings and understandings of appeasement
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Why does anyone do anything? Attempts to improve agentive explanations with Year 12
Teaching History article
In this article Sophie Harley-McKeown identifies and addresses her Year 12 students’ blind spot over agentive explanation. Noticing that the examination board to which she teaches uses ‘motivations’ rather than ‘aims’ prompted her to consider whether her students really knew what that meant. Finding that her students’ causal explanations tended...
Why does anyone do anything? Attempts to improve agentive explanations with Year 12
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Teaching History 180: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 180
The start of a new academic year, with all its comfortingly familiar rituals and routines, also brings with it a set of familiar feelings: the adrenaline rush that comes with last-minute preparations, the thrill (and nerves) of meeting new classes, the sheer pleasure of being back...
Teaching History 180: Out now
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Teaching History 180: How History Works
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial: How History Works (read article for free)
03 HA Secondary News
04 HA Update
10 Curating the imagined past: world building in the history curriculum – Michael Hill (read article)
21 Staying with the shot: shaping the question, lengthening the narrative, broadening the meaning of transatlantic slavery...
Teaching History 180: How History Works
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Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
Article
Students of A-level history are required to analyse and evaluate historical interpretations. Samuel Head found limitations in his Year 13 students’ understanding of how and why historians arrive at differing interpretations, which impeded their ability to analyse them. He set about tackling this with carefully sequenced planning and a processual model...
Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
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Triumphs Show 180: From ‘most able’ to ‘mini’ historians
Teaching History feature
Finding ways to stretch and challenge the highest-attaining students has been a long-standing concern of many history teachers, and strategies for doing so have developed far beyond merely bolting on additional tasks. One way in which I have sought to challenge my own high-attaining students has been by setting them...
Triumphs Show 180: From ‘most able’ to ‘mini’ historians
