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Join our Speakers List
Speak to our Branches
The Historical Association was founded in 1906 with the intention of supporting everyone interested in the study and teaching of history. Today it has around 45 branches throughout the UK, and over 10,000 individual, corporate and associate members.
Each of the HA branches organises a programme of talks and events each year,...
Join our Speakers List
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Year 7 challenge stereotypes about the Mexica
Teaching History article
After discussing a new book about the Mexica (Aztecs) during a routine meeting with a trainee teacher, Niamh Jennings decided to construct a sequence of lessons around the history of the Mexica Empire. Struck by the vivid storytelling of historian Camilla Townsend in her book Fifth Sun, and fascinated by...
Year 7 challenge stereotypes about the Mexica
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Working with sources: scepticism or cynicism? Putting the story back together again
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Many history teachers will remember the feature on Jamie Byrom's teaching in Times Educational Supplement of July 1996 where he attacked the recent fashion of history textbooks for encouraging only short (and usually formulaic) responses...
Working with sources: scepticism or cynicism? Putting the story back together again
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Monitoring, assessment, recording and reporting
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Much of the recent guidance related to assessment, monitoring and recording in primary history has focused more on what does NOT have to be done rather than on practical advice on what might be done. Given...
Monitoring, assessment, recording and reporting
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Finding the place of substantive knowledge in history
Teaching History article
‘What exactly is parliament?' finding the place of substantive knowledge in history
The relationship between knowledge and literacy is a central concern for all teachers. In his teaching, Palek noted that his students were struggling to understand complex substantive concepts such as ‘parliament' and decided to explore the relationship between students'...
Finding the place of substantive knowledge in history
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Assessment for learning in Primary History
A Guide to Assessment
A Guide to Assessment for learning in Primary History
Assessment for learning in Primary History
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Time's arrows? Using a dartboard scaffold to understand historical action
Teaching History article
Arthur Chapman presents a task-specific scaffold - a ‘dart' board - designed to teach students how to interrogate sources of information so that these become sources of evidence for particular claims about past actions, beliefs and aims. Chapman also uses his ‘dart' board to foster students' reflection on the degrees of...
Time's arrows? Using a dartboard scaffold to understand historical action
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The International Journal Volume 11, Number 2
Journal
Content
Editorial
History teaching, pedagogy, curriculum and politics: dialogues and debates in regional, national, transnational, international and supranational settings Robert Guyver, University of St Mark & St John, Plymouth
Australia
Scarcely an Immaculate Conception: new professionalism encounters old politics in the formation of the Australian National History Curriculum
Tony...
The International Journal Volume 11, Number 2
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Out went Caesar and in came the Conqueror: A case study in professional thinking
Teaching History article
A case study in professional thinking
Michael Fordham examines the evolution of his own practice as an example of how history teachers draw upon collective, professional knowledge constructed by other history teachers in journals, books, conferences and seminars. Fordham explains how a particular Year 7 enquiry examining historical change from the...
Out went Caesar and in came the Conqueror: A case study in professional thinking
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New, Novice or Nervous? 165: Enabling progress - students who need more support
Teaching History feature
Students often find history ‘hard’; senior managers and pastoral managers perceive it as challenging and many, with the best of intentions, steer students away from taking it for GCSE. Indeed, in the most recent HA survey, 49% of respondents reported that some students are actively discouraged or prevented from continuing...
New, Novice or Nervous? 165: Enabling progress - students who need more support
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Royal Holloway launches 'Inclusive Histories' project
18th September 2024
Royal Holloway, University of London has launched a £1.5 million project to support teachers with more inclusive UK political history resources.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) backed project will also support the AQA GCSE History specification, ‘Britain: Power and the People c1170 to the present day’.
This ‘Inclusive...
Royal Holloway launches 'Inclusive Histories' project
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Teaching Robin Hood at Key Stage 1
Primary History article
The stories of Robin Hood, which date from the Middle Ages, are integral to an understanding of British history. Although historians have not been able to identify a single historical figure that can be called Robin Hood, rooted in evidence, the myth or legend of Robin Hood has had a...
Teaching Robin Hood at Key Stage 1
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Significant anniversaries: the infamous Beeching Report 1963
Primary History article
March 2023 sees the anniversary of a report that had profound significance on social history and which affected many parts of the United Kingdom. There is every chance that it had an effect close to your school especially if you are in a more rural or coastal area.
The Beeching...
Significant anniversaries: the infamous Beeching Report 1963
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Using Nursery Rhymes to develop children's knowledge and understanding of the past
Primary History article
Nursery rhymes are good sources of evidence about the past and their potential for developing children's understanding has been discussed in earlier editions of Primary History (Woodhouse: 2005, 2001; Cooper: 2005; Primary History : 2000) They may be used as starting points to provide information about past ways of life...
Using Nursery Rhymes to develop children's knowledge and understanding of the past
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Teaching History Journal -IP Access
Teaching History Journal
The UK's leading professional journal for secondary history teachers, up to and including sixth form colleges. If you want to be completely up-to-date with debates and practice nationally, if you care about your own professional development and curriculum thinking, if you want both history and pupils' learning to be at...
Teaching History Journal -IP Access
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Kilpeck Church: a window on medieval 'mentalite'
Historian article
In the village of Kilpeck, about eight miles south-west of Hereford, may be found the small parish church of St Mary and St David, justifiably described by Pevsner as ‘one of the most perfect Norman village churches in England’ (Pevsner 1963, 201). Seemingly remote today, in the twelfth century the...
Kilpeck Church: a window on medieval 'mentalite'
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Recorded webinar: Making the most out of Holocaust Memorial Day: challenges and opportunities
In partnership with UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Since 2001 the UK has marked Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January, the date of the 'liberation' of Auschwitz Birkenau by Soviet soldiers in 1945. History teachers and their colleagues are often asked to 'mark' HMD in their schools. In this webinar we will explore themes of commemoration and education...
Recorded webinar: Making the most out of Holocaust Memorial Day: challenges and opportunities
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Uncovering the hidden histories: black and Asian people in the two world wars
Teaching History Article
The stories we tell in history are often stories about ourselves. This can lead to tremendous distortion. Rupert Gaze was shocked when a young black student told him that there was no point in his studying the Second World War because it had nothing to do with him or his...
Uncovering the hidden histories: black and Asian people in the two world wars
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Children in Victorian Britain: Down the Mine
Lesson Plan
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 leaders, join the Historical Association today
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum....
Children in Victorian Britain: Down the Mine
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History, values education & PSHE
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
The core values which are supposed to underpin the curriculum are generally taught through discrete personal, social and health education lessons and developed through classroom ethos. Yet history has at its heart the ways...
History, values education & PSHE
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Sir William Capell and a Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V
History journal blog
This blog post and interview complement the first view publication of the author's History journal article: ‘Sir William Capell and a Royal Chain: the Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V’.
The disappearance in 1483 of King Edward V and his brother Richard, duke of York - the 'Princes in the Tower' -...
Sir William Capell and a Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V
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Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial
03 HA Secondary News
04 Drilling down: how one history department is working towards progression in pupils’ thinking about diversity across Years 7, 8 and 9 – Matthew Bradshaw (Read article)
13 Cunning Plan: The generalisation game - challenging generalisations (Read article)
16 Were industrial towns ‘death-traps’? Year...
Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
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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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What kinds of feedback help students produce better historical narratives of the interwar years?
Teaching History article
Narrative has begun to take its place alongside the essay, for so long the stereotypical currency of the history teacher and student. In this work, based on his experiences as a PGCE student, Alex Rodker argues powerfully that it is time now to consider how to help students to produce...
What kinds of feedback help students produce better historical narratives of the interwar years?
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Developing disciplinary knowledge: how and why castles and forts developed
Primary History article
Disciplinary knowledge is often identified as a key area of development by subject leaders. In this article, Susie Townsend explores the concepts of change, continuity and causation through the lens of forts and castles. Emphasizing the importance of enquiry, she provides a range of historical activities that could be used in...
Developing disciplinary knowledge: how and why castles and forts developed
