General

When considering planning for any topic perhaps the first question should be to question your rationale for teaching this topic and how it relates to wider issues such as diversity, learning outside the classrooms, and whether to teach history discreetly or as a part of meaningfully linked cross curricular approach. In this section, you will find articles, guides, resources that will support you to develop your planning and helping children to make progress.

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  • How diverse is your history curriculum?

    Article

    The past was full of diverse people and our students are entitled to learn about this diverse past. History lessons should enable students to see their connection to the past and to understand the world today. Here are a list of questions for history teachers to use to support a...

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  • Film: Making an effective History curriculum

    Article

    Richard Kennett is a senior leader, teacher, blogger, text-book author and member of HA secondary committee. In November 2018, Richard visited the Yorkshire History Forum to talk about his school’s experience of reviewing and re-planning their Key Stage 3 curriculum. This film is of Richard’s keynote speech at the Forum....

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  • Primary history and British values

    Article

    In this article, Michael Maddison provides an overview of what schools must do in relation to promoting British values, as well as preventing extremism and radicalisation, and why it is so important that opportunities are taken in history to  deal with these two pressing issues. It is an updated version...

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  • What your local Archive Service can offer to schools

    Article

    Imagine a place where your pupils become detectives working on mysteries from the past such as the tale of Thomas Sargeant, a 15-year-old factory worker who died in a chemical works in 1898. Your local archive is bursting with stories about real people like this which can give children an...

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  • The importance of history vocabulary

    Article

    Teachers and schools should surely be forgiven for quickly turning to the pages containing the ‘subject content' - within the new 2014 history curriculum - and finding out ‘what' they should be teaching. This is especially true for Key Stage 2 where children must now learn British history from the...

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  • Ideas for Assemblies: Lest we forget

    Article

    Over the next three editions of Primary History our assemblies pages will be linked to the theme of commemorating the First World War. We have found that while many teachers wish to remember these events in school, they are unsure how to approach the subject with primary aged children. It...

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  • Britain from the Iron Age to Robin Hood

    Article

    ‘...if children are to ever fully appreciate history the development of historical time has to be central to our teaching methodologies' This lesson aims to provide an overview of this period, developing pupils' sense of chronology and their understanding of cause and consequence. The context for these ideas comes from...

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  • Curriculum Planning: which non-European society might we offer at school?

    Article

    A non-European society that provides contrasts with British history - one study. chosen from: early Islamic civilization, including a study of Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan civilization c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300. That's quite clear then - there's a choice between early Islam, Central America or...

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  • Including the Muslim Contribution in the National Curriculum for History

    Article

    History education has a key role to play in creating the informed, critical attachment of young people to the nation and in creating the feeling that young people belong and can participate in national life. The Curriculum for Cohesion Team, comprising Muslim and non-Muslim academics and community leaders, believes that...

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  • A History of the World: 100 objects that tell a story

    Article

    ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects' was the most creative, imaginative and dynamic development in primary History Education for thirty years. It ties in perfectly with and supports the government's draft NC for History...

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  • Helping pupils to view historical film critically

    Article

    Introduction: The teaching potential of film Films about historical events seem like the nearest thing we can give our pupils to a time machine. In commercial film, the physical appearance of the past has often been carefully researched, thus a snippet from Gladiator, for example, can give pupils some idea of...

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  • Bring on the iPad revolution

    Article

    The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic games celebrated change whilst demonstrating the challenges revolutions have on the world. From green pastures to belching chimneystacks, from post-war Britain to the World Wide Internet and text messaging, the way society interacts is changing at an incomprehensible rate. The same could be...

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  • The digital revolution

    Article

    Developments in information technology continue at an extraordinary pace. Many young children will have little or no idea of what it was like to live in a world without mobile phones, computers and the Internet. Most children will regularly make use of devices such as smart phones, digital cameras and...

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  • Case Study: Historical information and the local community

    Article

    The ICT revolution A paper register, a pink-lined A4 mark book and a written school log book are surely historical artefacts? The transition from paper to digital technology continues, changing the world of the classroom teacher whose working life like mine, began in the print age when digital-based education was...

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  • English Heritage's Heritage Explorer

    Article

    Diogenes - Waving not drowning: English Heritage's Heritage Explorer [THINK BUBBLE, has burst, r.i.p... Diogenes, a curmudgeonly Ancient Greek cynic, has taken its place. The original Grumpy Old Man Diogenes typically looks back to a mythical golden age] Introduction Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember a time when primary school...

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  • Is teaching about the Holocaust suitable for primary aged children?

    Article

    Editorial note: While this is a valuable paper, we must point out that the normal ethical procedures concerning such a sensitive, emotional subject must be followed in relation to pupils, their parents/carers and the wider community, i.e. the protocols for permission and clearance to teach such topics must be followed....

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  • Archives in Primary History

    Article

    In this series of podcast Sue Temple, Senior Lecturer in Primary History at the University of Cumbria looks at the value of using archives in the primary history classroom:

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  • Processes, Chronological Understanding & Planning

    Article

    In this podcast Dr Hilary Cooper, Professor of History and Pedagogy at the University of Cumbria, looks at why teachers and students seem to enjoy primary history and discusses processes of enquiry, chronological understanding and planning a topic. 1. Ofsted Report History for All published in 2011 said that: "history taught in schools...

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  • Primary History at Key Stage 2

    Article

    In this series of podcasts Karin Doull, Principal Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator (Primary History Education) at the University of Roehampton examines good history at Key Stage 2. 1. What makes a good primary history curriculum? 2. What makes a good history curriculum at Key Stage 2?3. Personalisation and local links4. The...

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  • Progression and coherence in history

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. "The focus for much of the planning and the teaching is on pockets of knowledge at basic levels. Thus, the notion that pupils can progress and do better over time in history is not well established...

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