Chronological Understanding

Sequencing, events, stories, pictures and periods over time to show how different times relate to each other and contribute to a coherent understanding of the past. You don’t have to teach topics in chronological order but need to relate the topics you teach to their chronological context.

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  • Churches as a local historical source

    Article

    At Key Stage 1 children should learn about significant events, (e.g. the Great Fire of London) and about people and places in their locality. At Key Stage 2 they should learn about British settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots (e.g. Anglo-Saxon art and culture) and do a local history study (e.g....

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  • Citizenship and the Olympics

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Citizenship links. While most of us engage with the nature of the sporting aspects of an Olympics throughout its modern day reincarnation, there are many aspects of the Games on and off the sporting field that...

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  • Coherence in primary history: How can we get children to see that their history links up?

    Article

    No teacher ever wants to claim that their history curriculum is incoherent. All schools want to have a curriculum that is logically ordered and consistent, that has clarity and that holds together. It is easy to assume that how we see this coherence as adults must also translate to the...

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  • Constructivist chronology and Horrible Histories

    Article

    Hilary Cooper illuminates how Horrible Histories can be effectively used to develop an understanding of chronology. She researched two topics: children and law and order. You can download her full paper: it is included in Primary History 59 on Teaching Chronology.

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  • Constructivist chronology and Horrible Histories

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. I chose Horrible Histories for this exploration of children's understanding of chronology because I thought it would be fun - and I approve of the Horrible Histories. They use sources, question sources, provide alternative interpretations and...

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  • Creating the 'creative history' website

    Article

    Editorial note: The role of ICT in the Digital Age is a major, perhaps even, the major factor, in enhancing creativity in the learning and teaching of history. This paper illuminates another dimension of ICT in the Digital Age and creativity. It shows how a teacher's creativity  has produced a...

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  • Cross Curricular Project on a famous person

    Article

    Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. If you are considering studying someone other than Florence Nightingale you have two basic options. You can either choose a local character who would be more relevant to the children, or you could study someone who...

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  • Developing early history skills and understanding through the EYFS

    Article

    Read more like this: EYFS scheme of work EYFS Medium term plan: Toys and Games Early Years Foundation Stage (article) Early Years: learning about the past (article) Using 'Development Matters' in the Foundation Stage (article) For many children, going to nursery school is a key part of their day. It...

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  • Developing pupils' chronological understanding

    Article

    In its latest triennial history survey report, History for all, Ofsted concluded that, ‘history teaching was good or better in most primary schools' and, ‘most pupils reached the  end of Key Stage 2 with detailed knowledge derived from well-taught studies of individual topics'. The report went on to note, though,...

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  • Doing history in the early years and foundation stage

    Article

    Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. Introducing the youngest children to the concept of history can be a challenging prospect for some foundation stage practitioners, particularly if they feel their experience of the subject has been limited or their own memories of...

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  • Elizabethan times: Just banquets and fun?

    Article

    Although much of the Key Stage 2 history curriculum relates to the period before 1066, we are expected to include 'a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066' (DfE, 2013,p.5) This raises two questions:a) How can a post-1066 topic be related...

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  • Enhancing temporal cognition: Practical activities for the primary classroom

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Research during the last ninety years has suggested that ‘time' concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my research suggests that temporal concepts can be...

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  • Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Research during the last eighty years has suggested that ‘time’ concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my recent research would suggest that temporal concepts...

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  • Enriching young children's understanding of time

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. As a primary teacher in the United States, I was sometimes caught off guard by students' ideas about time. Some 10-year-olds, I noticed, still could not read a clock or calculate the time between recess and...

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  • Eweka's story: Benin and Big Picture History

    Article

    The prospect of teaching Benin as a non-European Study within the time frame 900-1300 AD is challenging! Traditional oral evidence  suggests that the critical event during this period in Benin's past was a transition from the Ogiso to the Eweka Dynasty, named after its first Oba, which resulted in it...

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  • From Home to the Front: World War I

    Article

    Events which encapsulate family, community, national and global history provide rich opportunities for engaging children. Some of these draw on positive memories associated with past events: the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, how people responded to the first flight to the moon, the Millennium celebrations. Yet it is perhaps gruelling...

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  • Getting to grips with concepts in primary history

    Article

    Perhaps one of the most perplexing aspects of teaching history is the fostering of conceptual understanding. History subject leaders often find this a challenging issue. Even if they have a decent grasp themselves, it can be difficult for others in the school who have to teach the subject. Over recent...

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  • Having fun through time

    Article

    This article is about planning and teaching about ‘having fun across time’ for use in the later years of Key Stage 2 – investigating questions such as ‘Were people having fun in the same ways in the Middle Ages as in the Roman or Victorian periods?’ ‘What did our parents...

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  • Helping students make sense of historical time

    Article

    This article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Once upon a time, educators believed that there was a property of children’s minds known as ‘understanding of time’. According to this belief, young children had little ability to understand when things happened, even within their own...

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  • Here comes the ‘60s

    Article

    The 1960s were a decade of great change in Britain. The previous decade had seen America begin its gradual global cultural domination while Britain had to revise its role from imperial state to a member of the new Commonwealth of Nations. Recovery from the war had not been easy and...

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