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What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
Primary History article
The government's 2010 White Paper makes clear that the history curriculum will be reviewed. This is the ideal time to consider that very contentious issue - What History Should We Teach? And who better to ask than those who really know and understand what the curriculum will look and feel...
What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
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History in the early years
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Early years history should provide opportunities to expand the children's knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past and develop children's investigative and interpretive skills. Children should focus on:
Questioning
Observation
Generating thoughts...
History in the early years
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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Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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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Pupils as apprentice historians (4)
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Historical Association [HA] supports effective, stimulating and rewarding history teaching through its website, publications and in-service programme, particularly Primary History and its HITT [History in Initial Teacher Training Programme]. HITT provides extensive guidance on a...
Pupils as apprentice historians (4)
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Pupils as apprentice historians (2)
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
"Without knowing how the history we receive was arrived at, we can only take it as a series of mysterious assertions, which can only be learned in the sense of learning off by heart. Rote-learned history...
Pupils as apprentice historians (2)
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The History around us: Local history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
History is an important aspect of the development of even very young children. They need to begin to develop the foundations of an understanding of the past and how it has developed and affected our present....
The History around us: Local history
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Popular history: Using the media
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Should we use the media to teach history? Many people who were ‘turned off' history at school have been brought back to it in later life by visits to historic places and especially by television programmes....
Popular history: Using the media
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Dimensions Of Britishness: Cultural Diversity and Ethnicity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Teaching history is a balancing act between generalities and the particular. This article seeks to explore how Britishness and ethnic diversity relate to a broader understanding of diversity. We do not challenge the teaching of topics...
Dimensions Of Britishness: Cultural Diversity and Ethnicity
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From Kings To Queens to Sources and Evidence
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Until the mid 1930s the vast majority of children attended elementary schools, which went through from five to fourteen. In theory pre-war schools were left relatively free to teach in the way they chose as there...
From Kings To Queens to Sources and Evidence
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Scheme of Work: Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Scots settlement in Britain
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (unresourced)
In this unit, children can be introduced to the idea that people from other societies have been coming to Britain for a long time. They can learn about some of the tensions involved in the settlement as well as ways of life and matters that impact on us still.
This...
Scheme of Work: Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Scots settlement in Britain
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Learning to engage with documents through role play
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
First let me say that I did not research the materials used or plan this lesson. For this I must acknowledge, with thanks, that this is the work of my colleague, Mike Huggins, and the senior...
Learning to engage with documents through role play
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Why did you write it like a story rather than just saying the information?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Six-year-old Rebecca asked me this question when I visited her classroom to share a book which I had written with her and her classmates. It seemed to me at the time that Rebecca was identifying a...
Why did you write it like a story rather than just saying the information?
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Printed pictures with text: Using cartoons as historical evidence
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Written and printed sources are often multi-modal in nature, i.e. they combine images and text (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2001). Indeed, many printed sources in the print age, c. 1500-2000 and nearly all in the digital...
Printed pictures with text: Using cartoons as historical evidence
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Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
Article
When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Mexico during the early sixteenth century there were many repercussions for the indigenous people. Their conversion to Christianity and the sacking of their temples are two of the most well known examples. However, it is often forgotten that the Aztecs had only a pictorial...
Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
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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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How can citizenship education contribute to effective local history?
Primary History article
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Citizenship education in primary schools asks children to dig deeply into issues, to gain skills to become advocates and champions for the views of themselves and others and to be confident to take action on...
How can citizenship education contribute to effective local history?
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Recorded webinar: Avoiding confusion with chronology and change in primary history
Webinar series: Avoiding confusion and challenging misconceptions in primary history
This practical webinar identifies what confuses pupils in the teaching of chronology and the disciplinary concept of change and continuity and shows how such confusion and misconceptions can be avoided and challenged. Examples of careful planning and activities are given so that pupils can develop an accurate and nuanced understanding of...
Recorded webinar: Avoiding confusion with chronology and change in primary history
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Virtual Branch Recording: The East India Company and Empire
Foundations and Memory
What can the early history of the English East India Company tell us about the foundations of the British Empire, and where does that history sit within current debates about Britain’s imperial legacy? In this session Mark Williams offers a timely insight into the history of one of the most significant...
Virtual Branch Recording: The East India Company and Empire
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How much has the weather mattered in British history?
Primary History article
Tim Lomas has considered the effect that weather has had on shaping Britain. He explores how weather conditions and human actions have affected these islands and the communities living here. He suggests three potential areas of investigation. First, he looks at how weather changes might affect crop failure and so...
How much has the weather mattered in British history?
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A Significant Local Event: Carlisle floods
Primary History article
Sue Temple has used her personal experience of flooding around Carlisle as a basis for exploring local history. She suggests strategies for how we can explore events that have occurred in our own environments by making use of photos and oral history to link to the personal and immediate. As extreme...
A Significant Local Event: Carlisle floods
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Trees
Primary History article
This article includes a compilation of a series of articles about significant trees around Britain. It is hoped that this will prompt readers to explore their own environments, helping children to engage with and enjoy nature. Some of the trees in the article are designated as Great Trees. These were significant...
Trees
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Why we need to teach about the history of trees and woodland...
Primary History article
Michael Riley highlights the importance of educating children about the history of trees and woodland. He explores the potential of primary history to develop an understanding of our changing relationship with trees. The article shows how a focus on trees and woodland could enhance an existing history study, and suggests...
Why we need to teach about the history of trees and woodland...
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Asking the right questions. A study of the ability of KS2 children to devise and use questions as part of their own research
Article
Enquiry is an essential part of teaching history in the primary classroom. Asking and answering questions and selecting information relevant to the focus of an enquiry are important skills for young historians. Children often have much experience in answering questions in history and much has been written about developing children’s...
Asking the right questions. A study of the ability of KS2 children to devise and use questions as part of their own research
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Exploring the history of our place with very young children
Primary History article
Karin Doull considers how we can develop historical thinking in the Early Years in this article about locality and place. Karin offers helpful suggestions for developing historical vocabulary and assessing understanding.
How can we seek to encourage Foundation Stage children to engage with historical thinking and processes? What appears to...
Exploring the history of our place with very young children
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What’s important about...? Sources and evidence
Primary History article
In this timely article, Ailsa Fidler and Chris Russell explore the use of sources and evidence in the teaching of primary history. Referring to Ofsted’s history subject report (July 2023), Ailsa and Chris explore how sources can be used effectively in the classroom and how children’s understanding of the role...
What’s important about...? Sources and evidence
