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The dialogic dimensions of knowing and understanding the Norman legacy in Chester
Teaching History article
Michael Bird and Thomas Wilson focus their attention directly on the voices of pupils, in dialogue with their teacher and with each other, as they draw inferences from differing sources about the Norman legacy in Chester. By carefully examining dialogue stimulated by these sources, Bird and Wilson demonstrate not only...
The dialogic dimensions of knowing and understanding the Norman legacy in Chester
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Using the back cover image: Westonzoyland War Memorial
Primary History feature
The image on the back cover is of the war memorial in Westonzoyland, Somerset. It consists of a concrete plinth with a metal shell-case set on top, on the front of which is a plaque which reads:
‘This shell was presented by Westonzoyland Parish Council to commemorate the memory of...
Using the back cover image: Westonzoyland War Memorial
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Does scaffolding make them fall? Reflecting on strategies for developing causal argument in Years 8 and 11
Teaching History article
Jennifer Evans and Gemma Pate, history teachers in two Essex schools, had noticed that sometimes a writing frame did the opposite of what was intended. Sometimes a card sort fostered rich discussion and ownership; sometimes it led the students down a reductive rather than mind-opening path. Sometimes modelling of paragraphs...
Does scaffolding make them fall? Reflecting on strategies for developing causal argument in Years 8 and 11
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The Historian 97: Wellington's Soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars
The magazine of the Historical Association
A Victorian deserter's family story: surviving a clash of loyalties - Donald Read (Read Article)
Shipwrecks, Clocks and Westminster Abbey: the story of John Harrison - Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS
Wellington’s Soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars - Zeta Moore (Read article)
Buffolo Bill and his Wild West show opens in London's Earls Court...
The Historian 97: Wellington's Soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars
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Case Study: Creative chronological thinking
Primary History article
Personal biographies
I often ask groups to collect and record their own personal chronologies. They are asked to bring in evidence to tell the stories of their own lives or of the life of a relative, which they will then weave into a ‘photo book' story. The photo books become...
Case Study: Creative chronological thinking
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Move Me On 150: Planning
Teaching History feature
This issue's problem: Simon Montfort is given very little freedom to learn how to plan.
Simon considered himself very fortunate when he arrived in his training school. Even on the induction day his mentor had been able to give him copies of the schemes of work for each year group...
Move Me On 150: Planning
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Enquiries to engage Year 7 in medieval anarchy
Teaching History article
Wrestling with Stephen and Matilda: planning challenging enquiries to engage Year 7 in medieval anarchy
McDougall found learning about Stephen and Matilda fascinating, was sure that her pupils would also and designed an enquiry to engage them in ‘the anarchy' of 1139-1153 AD. Pupils enjoyed exploring ‘the anarchy' and learning...
Enquiries to engage Year 7 in medieval anarchy
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JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
Teaching History article
Dale Banham and Russell Hall present a multi-faceted rationale for an in-depth study of the 1991 film, JFK. They treat it as an ‘interpretation’ in the National Curriculum sense, constructing a varied and meticulous learning journey towards its analysis. By the end of that journey pupils had examined the central...
JFK: the medium, the message and the myth
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Using diagrammatic representations of counterfactuals to develop causal reasoning
Teaching History article
Tom Bennett begins his article with a tale of a frustrating afternoon with Year 7. We’ve all been there. In his case, his frustration was caused by his finding a conceptual gap between how well his class wanted to do and the actual quality of their causal thinking. Bennett decided...
Using diagrammatic representations of counterfactuals to develop causal reasoning
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Polychronicon 174: Votes for Women
Teaching History feature
The beginnings of the nationally organised campaign for women’s suffrage began with suffragists’ orchestration of the petition to Parliament in favour of female suffrage in 1866. The petition contained almost 1,500 names from across the country and was presented to parliament by the Liberal MP John Stuart Mill; it was...
Polychronicon 174: Votes for Women
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It worked for me: investing in dialogue as a tool for assessment
Primary History feature
The school in which I work serves a community of locals and expats and follows the English National Curriculum. Situated in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, we are one of a growing number of international schools in the area. It is five form entry and only opened in 2009....
It worked for me: investing in dialogue as a tool for assessment
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The Blitz: All we need to know about World War II?
Primary History article
The Blitz of 1940 is certainly a significant event in Britain’s past, one which has repeatedly been drawn upon as a symbol of national consciousness. It was a time when most of Europe had been defeated by the Nazi regime in Germany, typically through ‘Blitzkrieg’ – or lightning war methods...
The Blitz: All we need to know about World War II?
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Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
Primary History article
The Abbasid Caliphate stretched from North Africa across to Afghanistan and the North West Frontier. Within the caliphate there were movements of people, goods and ideas. The golden period of this early Islamic caliphate was around 900 AD. As the caliphs were building a major trading empire across the Middle...
Trade and pilgrimage in the Abbasid Caliphate
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Using the back cover image: Lest We Forget
Primary History feature
Over the past four years the nation has been commemorating the centenary of the First World War. From soldiers, women, animals, technology and much more… we researched, filmed, documented and preserved. On 11 November, 100 years since the agreement to end hostilities, we commemorated the Armistice. But what can we...
Using the back cover image: Lest We Forget
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Move Me On 175: paying attention to why topics have been included in schemes of work
The problem page for history mentors
This issue's problem: Martha Partington doesn't pay enough attention to the reasons why particular topics or approaches to them have been included with her department’s schemes of work...
Move Me On 175: paying attention to why topics have been included in schemes of work
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Competition and counterfactuals without confusion
Teaching History article
Paula Worth was searching not only for a rigorous question, capable of engendering genuine debate, but also for an engaging and enjoyable activity that would secure GCSE students' substantive knowledge. The answer - or rather the question - lay in counterfactual thinking: a carefully crafted game that she devised, based...
Competition and counterfactuals without confusion
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Move Me On 174: Not doing all the thinking for the students
The problem page for history mentors
This issue’s problem: Alex Spotswood finds that the activities that he devises tend to involve him, rather than his students, doing all the real thinking and processing of information.
Alex Spotswood is well established in his main placement and has taken responsibility for regular GCSE and Key Stage 3 teaching. He is highly...
Move Me On 174: Not doing all the thinking for the students
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Polychronicon 143: the Balfour Declaration
Teaching History feature
In a letter from the British Foreign Secretary, A.J. Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, the Anglo-Jewish leader, on 2 November 1917, the British Government declared its intention to ‘facilitate' the ‘establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people'. The Balfour Declaration, as it became known, was endorsed by...
Polychronicon 143: the Balfour Declaration
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Case Study: Effectively using the census in the classroom
Primary History case study
The British government introduced the census in 1801 to count every man, woman and child in the UK. The Census has been repeated, with increasing detail, every 10 years, with the exception of 1941, since then. This gives us an amazing insight into Victorian and Edwardian life. But how can we...
Case Study: Effectively using the census in the classroom
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The potty timeline: an effective way of using timelines
Primary History article
Timelines are a constant source of fascination. Rows of events and time periods all jostling for position on an eternal line, cramming together or strung out with wide gaps between them. In our primary classrooms, however, the vastness of timelines can be diminished as we crop them on computers and...
The potty timeline: an effective way of using timelines
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Castles: distinguishing fact and fiction in the early years curriculum
Primary History article
Castles is a popular topic which fits well into the expectations for Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum. This article focuses on suggestions for the EYFS but there are links in the resources section for Key Stage 1 articles previously published. If you are...
Castles: distinguishing fact and fiction in the early years curriculum
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Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
Primary History feature
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...
Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
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Using role-play to develop young children’s understanding of the past
Primary History article
Unknown, interesting artefacts can really capture a child’s enthusiasm for learning. In the Foundation Stage, children want to use all their senses to explore and play with objects, and so the planning of practical, hands-on activities is important.
The activities in this article were completed by Reception children in a...
Using role-play to develop young children’s understanding of the past
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For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
Primary History article
In October 1914 France faced defeat on what would later become the Western Front. If the Germans captured the channel ports then the small British Expeditionary Force (BEF) supporting the French would be cut off from Britain, and the channel ports themselves might be used to launch a German invasion of...
For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
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Using the back cover image: Moustache cup
Primary History feature
The moustache cup I purchased on ebay is one of the most popular artefacts I use with students in a good game of ‘guess the object’. It has a wonderful quality of being at the same time familiar yet strange. Despite telling the students not to start with the question...
Using the back cover image: Moustache cup
