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Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
Primary History article
Alf Wilkinson discusses a book first published in 2008, and set in Ancient Egypt.
Ma’at’s Feather is the story of Qen, a young boy growing up in ancient Egypt. He is part of a farming family, and we discover how their livelihood is totally dependent on the River Nile...
Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
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Lecture: Gender, place and power in controverted 18th century elections
HA Annual Conference lecture 2019
Lecture: Gender, place and power in controverted 18th century elections
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Pull-out Posters: Primary History 81
What was it like to be a child in World War II? and Images of three female pilots
1. What was it like to be a child in World War II? 2. Three female pilots - can you use the words in the box to talk about each pilot?
Pull-out Posters: Primary History 81
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New, Novice or Nervous? 173: including BME history in the curriculum
The quick guide to the ‘no-quick-fix’
This page is for those new to the published writings of history teachers. Each problem you wrestle with, other teachers have wrestled with too. Quick fixes don’t exist. But in others’ writing, you’ll find something better: conversations in which history teachers have debated or tackled your problems – conversations which any history teacher...
New, Novice or Nervous? 173: including BME history in the curriculum
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Cunning Plan 139: Victorian debates about progress
Teaching History feature
How can we interest students in the world of ideas? How can we help them to see how important ideas were in shaping and reflecting the world of the Victorians? Working with the overarching enquiry question, ‘Why did some Victorians believe in progress in the nineteenth century and others did not?’ I devised...
Cunning Plan 139: Victorian debates about progress
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‘I need to know…’: creating the conditions that make students want knowledge
Teaching History journal article
Chloe Bateman recognised the value to her Key Stage 3 pupils of developing rich subject knowledge, but wanted to find a way of encouraging them to value that knowledge for themselves. In this article she explains how she provided that inspiration by setting her Year 7 class the challenge of...
‘I need to know…’: creating the conditions that make students want knowledge
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Tyneside Branch Programme
Article
Tyneside Branch Programme 2025-26
For general questions about the Tyneside Branch, feel free to contact the Branch Chair, Daniel Laqua Daniel.laqua@northumbria.ac.uk
Wednesday 28 January 2026
6 pm at Newcastle Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE
Playing Like a Girl: A History of Women's Football...
Tyneside Branch Programme
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‘Through the looking glass’
Journal article
Danielle Donaldson began to notice the verbs that her pupils used to express their ideas. She noticed that more successful pupils were using carefully chosen verbs to express their conceptual thinking about causation or change, and wondered how this might relate to, and reflect, the breadth and security of their...
‘Through the looking glass’
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Teaching local history through a family
Article
The aim of this article is to teach local history through the prism of a local family. History is primarily about people. Using a family who lived in the locality over a large number of years, especially if they impacted considerably on that locality, can help develop an understanding of...
Teaching local history through a family
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Seeing beyond the frame
Teaching History article
History teachers frequently show pupils visual images and often expect pupils to interrogate such images as evidence. But confusions arise and opportunities are missed when pupils do this without guidance on how to ‘read’ the image systematically and how to place it in context. Barbara Ormond gives a detailed account...
Seeing beyond the frame
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It worked for me: investing in dialogue as a tool for assessment
Primary History feature
The school in which I work serves a community of locals and expats and follows the English National Curriculum. Situated in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, we are one of a growing number of international schools in the area. It is five form entry and only opened in 2009....
It worked for me: investing in dialogue as a tool for assessment
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Primary History 81
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Editorial (Read article)
05 HA Primary News
08 Riding along on my pushbike… exploring transport in EYFS – Helen Crawford (Read article)
11 Three first-class ladies – teaching significant individuals in Key Stage 1: Harriet Quimby, Hilda Hewlett and Bessie Coleman – Karin Doull (Read article)
17 Assessment and feedback in...
Primary History 81
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Riding along on my pushbike… exploring transport in EYFS
Primary History article
There is a myriad of opportunities for exploring the history of travel and transport in Early Years. You could focus on the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon flight in the late eighteenth century, the invention of steam trains and motor cars in the nineteenth century, or even the space race...
Riding along on my pushbike… exploring transport in EYFS
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Recorded webinar series: From Cyrus to Cleopatra: The ancient history adventure
Free webinar series for secondary teachers from the Historical Association and the Classical Association
This webinar series, offered in collaboration with the Classical Association, explores how ancient history can be embedded across the key stages at secondary level. Across this series, we will show you how teaching ancient history is relevant today, enriches modern classrooms and gives learners the opportunity to explore some key...
Recorded webinar series: From Cyrus to Cleopatra: The ancient history adventure
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Three first-class ladies – teaching significant individuals in Key Stage 1
Primary History article
The turn of the 20th century was in many ways a golden age of aviation. In 1903 the Wright brothers conquered heavier-than-air flight. From that time onward there were many other visionaries who wanted to be part of the dream of flying. The topic of early aviation history is an...
Three first-class ladies – teaching significant individuals in Key Stage 1
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Assessment and feedback in history
Primary History article
Every year schools need to produce a statutory annual report for parents and carers, setting out ‘brief particulars of achievements in all subjects and activities forming part of the school curriculum’. This should include the strengths and developmental needs of each child. In a subject such as history, how do...
Assessment and feedback in history
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Resources for courses: ideas for your history curriculum
Primary History article
In times of tight budgets and with the new financial year on the horizon in April, now might be a good time to look at different ways to resource your history curriculum effectively. Alongside all the resources for teachers available from Primary History and the HA website, the following list...
Resources for courses: ideas for your history curriculum
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Polychronicon 172: Health in the Middle Ages
Teaching History feature
The history of medicine, health, and illness between c. 500 AD and 1500 has received a great deal of scholarly attention in recent decades. It’s a fascinating field that can tell us a great deal about medieval people’s everyday lives and their day-to-day worries: after all, everyone is ill or...
Polychronicon 172: Health in the Middle Ages
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Why stop at the Tudors?
Primary History article
When deciding to teach the topic of Benin to my Year 5 pupils I was somewhat daunted by the fact that I had never taught it before, and I was determined that it be a meaningful experience which benefited their narrative, chronological and historical skills-based understanding of the subject. I was...
Why stop at the Tudors?
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Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
Primary History feature
LGBT History Month was established in 2004. It not only raises awareness of discrimination still faced by the LGBT+ community but also celebrates LGBT+ people and their achievements. February is LGBT History Month and its theme this year was ‘History: Peace, Reconciliation, and Activism’.
Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
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Ideas for Assemblies: A slightly different view of remembrance
Primary History feature
The principle of this assembly is to show that positive events and developments can occur in the worst times and events of human history. To begin with, it is vital to ensure that the children (and staff!) know and understand that the First World War was not a good thing for...
Ideas for Assemblies: A slightly different view of remembrance
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One of my favourite history places: Durham Cathedral
Primary History feature
The best thing about Durham Cathedral is how it impresses on every scale and from every viewpoint. As you approach the city by train, it looms over the skyline hugging the River Wear and even dwarfing its imposing neighbour, Durham Castle. When you finally make the steep walk up towards cathedral green, the building towers above...
One of my favourite history places: Durham Cathedral
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Dora Thewlis: Mill girl activist
Primary History article
Dora Thewlis was born in 1890 in Yorkshire to a family of textile workers employed in the mills around the Huddersfield Canal. She followed her mother and elder siblings into the mill at the age of 10, earning around £1 a week.
Dora’s family, and especially her mother, were very...
Dora Thewlis: Mill girl activist
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Civil Rights: 1968 and Northern Ireland
Historian article
Jim McBride looks at the growing demand for equal civil rights for the Catholic population of Northern Ireland through the 1960s, which led to the resignation of Terence O’Neill in 1969.
Civil Rights: 1968 and Northern Ireland
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How can old advertisements be used in the primary classroom?
Primary History article
Advertising is a central part of our everyday lives. There are few ways to escape it and it has a long pedigree. It has long been recognised that it can help sell products through the power of the punch line or the visual image. Trade cards appeared as early as...
How can old advertisements be used in the primary classroom?
