Significance

The focus around this concept is on recognizing why a person of event is of importance. Children are encouraged to evaluate the relevance of the contribution of different individuals or how an event came to affect future generations. Children can apply a number of criteria to evaluate significance such as those of Partington (1980) who suggested they consider: Read more

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  • Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the kingdom of England

    Article

    The Vikings will be familiar territory to many primary teachers. For many, therefore, this section of the history curriculum should cause fewer headaches than others. This does not mean, however, that it is all straightforward. This article contains a number of elements that teachers might welcome including a timeline of...

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  • Assessment and Progression without levels

    Article

    The new (2014) Primary History National Curriculum is finally upon us. The first thing you might notice is that the level descriptions have gone. These were first introduced in 1995 and became the mainstay for assessing pupil progression and attainment in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 across schools in...

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  • The Maya: a 4,000-year-old civilisation in the Americas

    Article

    Obscured by the fame of the Aztec empire or shrouded by a veil of mystery, the cultural history of the Maya has generally been misunderstood by the British public. Maya civilisation developed in a territory the size of Germany and Denmark together (nearly 400,000 km2). This vast territory shows three...

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  • Investigating the Indus Valley (2600-1900 B.C.)

    Article

    In 1924 The Illustrated London News broke the story of a sensational discovery in the Indian subcontinent. Ruined mounds at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, 600 km apart, were forgotten cities of a lost civilisation. Nearly all we know about the Indus Civilisation comes from archaeology. What survives leaves many unanswered questions,...

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  • Implementing the 2014 curriculum in Year 2

    Article

    The chance to pilot the new National Curriculum presented me with the opportunity I was looking for to revamp a tired Year 2 curriculum. I began teaching in Year 2 two years ago, having previously spent five years working in Key Stage 2. As in many other schools across the...

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  • Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross

    Article

    This image is a reconstruction, or interpretation, by Peter Dunn, an artist, of what Sandbach Crosses might have looked like in the ninth century. They are one of the few remaining Anglo-Saxon stone crosses in the country. They stand in the market place in Sandbach, Cheshire. You can find a...

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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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  • The Great Fire of London and the National Curriculum

    Article

    The Great Fire of London is a favourite National Curriculum teaching topic. This paper draws on the latest resources and teaching ideas to suggest how you can meet both the NC history requirements and the wider ones of the National Curriculum, particularly in integrated programmes that include teaching about the Great...

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  • Teaching famous people at key stage one

    Article

    The draft English NC for history highlights the study of ‘significant individuals and people'. Michelle Dexter provides an insight on how to approach this biographical requirement; it also opens up biography as a major genre for pupils to master - augmenting their development of literacy...

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  • An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The Italian confectioner Dorando Pietri is one of the most famous figures from the 1908 Olympics - famous for not winning. His story raises issues of sportsmanship suitable for class discussion. There are detailed accounts readily...

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  • From Champion to Hero: Engaging Pupils in a study of significant Olympians

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Allocated the task of researching and presenting ideas for teaching about significant Olympians, I thought: ‘Brilliant, this is the easy one'. How wrong can one be! I expected to be able to access a plethora of...

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  • Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Three curricular editions of Primary History, PH 50, Autumn 2008 , PH 53, Autumn 2009 and PH 57, Spring 2011 are directly relevant to teaching the Olympics. PH 50, Autumn 2008 History Education in the 21st...

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  • William Brookes and the Olympic Games

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. History flows like a river, sometimes quiet and unobtrusive, sometimes a raging torrent with wide-ranging effects on the world around us. It is punctuated by momentous events and significant individuals, who impact on its direction and...

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  • Learning to engage with documents through role play

    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...

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  • Using classic fiction to support the study of childhood in Victorian times

    Article

    Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. Classic fiction provides useful sources of information for investigating the lives, beliefs and values of people in the past. In this article Ann Cowling describes activities undertaken with student teachers which may also serve as models...

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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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  • 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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  • Addressing the issues of knowledge, skills and understanding

    Article

    This section explores some of the key ideas and activities for time, causation, interpretations, enquiry and significance. There are also some ideas on how history can be linked with literacy.

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