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Every picture tells a story: Sage comme une image
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
A crucial issue in using history as a vehicle for learning is the professional development of colleagues with whom you are working. This is an activity I did with students on a PGCE...
Every picture tells a story: Sage comme une image
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Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What has a small Shropshire town got to do with the modern Olympic Games? Why is a country doctor a key figure in the development of the modern games? Why is one of the 2012 mascots...
Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
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Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
Primary History article
While most teachers recognise the importance of artefacts in history education, knowing how to use them effectively can often prove more challenging. This article suggests ways to investigate historical objects and provides a framework to support children’s observations.
Why use artefacts?
Artefacts are simply any object used by people in...
Back to basics: using artefacts in the classroom
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Storytelling - how can we imagine the past?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Simon Schama's plea to "reinvent the art and science of storytelling in the classroom" made the media headlines and echoed centuries of educational history (Bage 1999). "It is, after all, the glory of our historical tradition...
Storytelling - how can we imagine the past?
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Ideas for assemblies: significant women in history
Primary History feature
For this edition we have chosen an overarching theme of significant women in history to link your assemblies. We have also looked for a link between the women to the month in which your assembly is being delivered. A common approach when introducing each of the women could be to...
Ideas for assemblies: significant women in history
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Exploring empire, artefacts and local history
Primary History article
This article introduces us to the Colonial Countryside Project. Many of the sites we visit, especially the great country houses and stately homes, have long been visited by children. They are often fascinated by both the buildings and the history associated with them. However, there is a growing recognition that...
Exploring empire, artefacts and local history
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A creative Egyptian project
Primary History article
Ideally when teaching history, teachers will look to deliver projects that will engage and motivate, hopefully making the hard work of being creative stimulating and rewarding, based upon questioning, enquiry, investigation of sources and reaching conclusions grounded in the evidence.Ancient Egypt is one of those history topics which, because it...
A creative Egyptian project
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How to teach chronology
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. For more recent resources see:
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge (2014)
Scheme of work (KS2): Chronology: Books through time
Scheme of work (KS2): Chronology: Numbers through time
Britain and World timeline 4000-2000BC
Britain and World timeline 2000BC to 0BC
Britain and World timeline, 0BC...
How to teach chronology
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Urban spaces near you
Primary History article
The public spaces in built up areas contain a rich collection of historical clues about our identity - the way in which the past has framed the present. Such spaces are available for all pupils to study in all areas. Jacqui introduces this fascinating and valuable aspect of our historical...
Urban spaces near you
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A view from the classroom: Teachers TV, The Staffordshire Hoard And 'Doing History'
Primary History article
When the Historical Association was approached by Teachers' TV to produce ‘Great Ideas for Teaching History' at Key Stage 2, it was inevitable that I, as a full time teacher on the Primary Committee, would have no escape. My school agreed I could take part, with the involvement of two...
A view from the classroom: Teachers TV, The Staffordshire Hoard And 'Doing History'
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Using different sources to bring a topic to life: The Rebecca Riots
Primary History article
For primary school pupils a key aim of the National Curriculum for history is to understand the method of historical enquiry. Working with original sources is of course central to the whole process and provides a great way to inspire pupils’ experience of the subject. Young pupils, once they have...
Using different sources to bring a topic to life: The Rebecca Riots
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The importance of history teaching
Primary History article
Introduction: The White Paper
The recent Schools' White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, emphasises ‘that the most important factor in determining how well children do is the quality of teachers and teaching' (DfE, 2010:9).
White Paper recommendations include:
1. raising the quality of new entrants to the teaching profession;
2....
The importance of history teaching
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History in the early years
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Early years history should provide opportunities to expand the children's knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past and develop children's investigative and interpretive skills. Children should focus on:
Questioning
Observation
Generating thoughts...
History in the early years
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Whose history is it anyway?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The main goals of educating children are meeting their educational and achievement needs. Herein is the challenge. Our classrooms are a cornucopia of diversity. The most prominent or acknowledged being gender, class, religion and ethnicity. Some...
Whose history is it anyway?
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Teaching local history through a family
Article
The aim of this article is to teach local history through the prism of a local family. History is primarily about people. Using a family who lived in the locality over a large number of years, especially if they impacted considerably on that locality, can help develop an understanding of...
Teaching local history through a family
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Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
Primary History feature
LGBT History Month was established in 2004. It not only raises awareness of discrimination still faced by the LGBT+ community but also celebrates LGBT+ people and their achievements. February is LGBT History Month and its theme this year was ‘History: Peace, Reconciliation, and Activism’.
Ideas for assemblies: LGBT History Month
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Planning for history - the coordinator's perspective
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Cathie's paper can be used as a checklist of action points for the planning of Programmes of Study incorporating history.
Starting points
If you are responsible for leading teaching and learning in history, there...
Planning for history - the coordinator's perspective
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Getting to grips with concepts in primary history
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...
Getting to grips with concepts in primary history
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Raising the profile of history in your school
Primary History article
All too often, with increasing pressure to obtain the ‘best’ results, primary schools allow English and mathematics to steal the limelight, unwittingly pushing other subjects to one side. As a consequence, these ‘other’ subjects are squeezed into vehicles to teach English or maths – barely recognisable under the guise of...
Raising the profile of history in your school
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Campaign: Make an impact and history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What is the role of history in the curriculum? Is it to give a traditional education or because history is a powerful teacher that we all can learn from? In my view well-taught history doesn't leave...
Campaign: Make an impact and history
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The wheels (and horses…) on the bus
Primary History article
A theme in the Early Years will have many cross-curricular links, encompassing many of the different areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework. The focus for this article is on historical elements of Understanding the World; however there will be some cross-over into other areas of...
The wheels (and horses…) on the bus
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Think Bubble 60: Writing from experience
Primary History article
The business of ‘experiencing' history is in as healthy state as it is possible to imagine. In a recent straw poll of primary GTP trainees in the Oxford-Bucks partnership over 80% cited drama, role play or similar inter-active experience as being the most memorable feature of learning history in the...
Think Bubble 60: Writing from experience
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ICT and Local History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
It is the year 3002 AD. The spaceship hovers over the surface of the earth, locked in to the spot where the Bolham time capsule is buried.
One thousand years ago the fifteen 9 and 10...
ICT and Local History
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Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
Primary History article
From a visit to a local museum or heritage site, to using bushcraft skills to give pupils first-hand experience of what it might have been like to live in ancient times, teaching prehistory outside the classroom can really give this area of the curriculum the wow factor. The inclusion of...
Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
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Teaching the Ancient Greeks
Primary History article
Ancient Greece has been part of the primary national curriculum since its inception in 1991 so you may already have a viable scheme of work and classroom resources in place. However, this is not a reason for eschewing the opportunity to review what you are doing, especially to explore how...
Teaching the Ancient Greeks
