Historic Environment

Schools that are already teaching SHP will be familiar with the concept of a local History study, unlike their Modern World counterparts. However, the new GCSE is significantly different from what has gone before, as the unit will be assessed by terminal assessment and for most assessment bodies the site will be selected for schools. So, how can we embrace the opportunities offered by this study of the historic environment? Firstly, it is worth comparing how the examining bodies have designed this module. Each exam body has different assessment focuses and freedom of choice. It may also call for a re-evaluation of how your school teaches at Key Stage 3. What skills do you want to embed?

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  • 'How our area used to be back then': An oral history project in an east London school

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. How can oral history enquiries engage students with the study of history and help them connect their learning about the past to their present lives? How can oral history engage and develop students' understanding of...

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  • 'Right well kept': Peterborough Abbey 1536-1539

    Article

    Although the reasons for and the process of dissolution in Peterborough Abbey compare closely to all other religious houses, the consequences were unique. Peterborough received favourable treatment and so emerged from the dissolution as one of six abbeys to be transformed into new cathedrals. The changes imposed on Peterborough were...

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  • Active remembrance

    Article

    A year after the end of the First World War, George V stated: "I believe that my people in every part of the Empire fervently wish to perpetuate the memory of the Great Deliverance and those who laid down their lives to achieve it." From that moment, the idea of large-scale remembrance...

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  • Cunning Plan 108: teaching Tudor architecture

    Article

    In this edition of 'Cunning Plan' Diana Laffin illustrates how Tudor Architecture can be taught.

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  • Cunning Plan 134: local history at KS3

    Article

    Question: How can we plan to integrate local history into Key Stage 3 schemes of work so that pupils are engaged by the relevance of the subject across different periods of time? Local history can come in all shapes and sizes, from a large-scale oral history project to the perusal...

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  • Eltham Palace and Orpington

    Article

    Eltham Palace: The House of Secret Messages: Eltham Palace is a house full of secret messages, and is a building unlike any other. A completely original interpretation of the symbolism of Eltham Palace, which reveals its charm and humour for the first time. Discover what this strange building is really...

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  • England's Immigrants 1330-1550

    Multipage Article

    An HA Podcast with Professor Mark Ormrod of the University of York looking at the research project England's Immigrants 1330-1550.  In this podcast Professor Ormrod explores the extensive archival evidence about the names, origins, occupations and households of a significant number of foreigners who chose to make their lives and livelihoods in...

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  • English Heritage and Historical Association Local Heritage Project

    Article

    One year ago (2011), the south eastern branch of English Heritage and the Historical Association came together to see what we could do better in partnership. The outcome was the Local Heritage Partnership Project. The vision was to work together to provide access to and inspiration to carry out local...

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  • Exploring diversity at GCSE

    Article

    Having already reflected on ways of improving their students' understanding of historical diversity at Key Stage 3, Joanne Philpott and Daniel Guiney set themselves the challenge of extending this to post-14 students by means of fieldwork activities at First World War battlefields sites. In addition, they wanted to link the study...

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  • Helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house

    Article

    A host of histories: helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house Described by the author Monica Ali as a building that ‘sparks the imagination and sparks conversations', 19 Princelet Street, now a Museum of Diversity and Immigration, captivated the imagination of teacher David Waters. He...

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  • Moving People, Changing Places

    Article

    Professor Kim Knott has created a website entitled Moving People, Changing Places which concerns issues of migration, identity and diversity facing contemporary societies.  The website and an accompanying book aimed at Key Stage 4 students has been the product of an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant.Moving People, Changing Places...

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  • My Favourite History Place - Sackville College, East Grinstead

    Article

    Sackville College almshouse in East Grinstead, Sussex, was founded in 1609, by Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset, when he wrote his will. He died 17 days later without seeing one stone laid, yet the College still stands, providing affordable accommodation for local elderly people of limited means. It is...

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  • Relevant, rigorous and revisited: using local history to make meaning of historical significance

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The idea of engaging pupils with the relevance of local memorials is becoming commonplace in the history classroom. In Teaching History 109, Examining History  Edition, Dale Banham's pupils used First World War memorials to assess...

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  • Remembering the First World War: Using a battlefield tour of the Western Front

    Article

    Remembering the First World War: Using a battlefield tour of the Western Front to help pupils take a more critical approach to what they encounter The first year of the government's First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme is now under way, allowing increasing numbers of students from across Britain...

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  • Riots, railways and a Hampshire hill fort: Exploiting local history for rigorous evidential enquiry

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Rigorous historical enquiry is integral to effective history teaching. The 2008 National Curriculum has recognised its importance by giving it a broader definition as a key process to include not only the use of historical...

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  • Teaching History 134: Local Voices

    Article

    02 Editorial 03 HA Secondary News 04 Relevant, rigorous and revisited: using local history to make meaning of historical significance – Geraint Brown and James Woodcock (Read article) 12 Cunning Plan: Local history at KS3 – Dan Moorhouse (Read article) 15 Nutshell 16 Riots, railways and a Hampshire hill fort: exploiting local...

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  • Teaching the Historic Environment

    Article

    The GCSE History criteria specify that the courses should cover three geographical contexts: local, British and European/wider world. The requirement to include some local history has been developed into the study of a locality in its Historic Environment. This has been developed in four different ways by the Awarding bodies...

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  • Telling and suggesting in the Conwy Valley

    Article

    Thelma Wiltshire applies a ‘telling' and ‘suggesting' strategy to an enquiry involving an historical site. Getting beyond more simplistic approaches to ‘fact' and ‘opinion', she describes how a pack of curriculum materials was designed to give pupils a precise language to talk about layers of certainty and uncertainty in their...

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  • The Irish in Britain 1815-1914

    Article

    Irish migration to Britain has a long and chequered history, yet only in recent years have historians examined this subject in depth, through a growing body of local, regional and national studies which have supplemented the earlier pioneering research of J. E. Handley and J. A. Jackson. These studies have...

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  • The National Heritage List

    Article

    This is a momentous occasion in the history of designation in England and we hope you find the List and the online application form a useful resource. The National Heritage List for England is an online database which brings together information on all nationally designated heritage assets in one place for...

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