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Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
Primary History article
Alf Wilkinson discusses a book first published in 2008, and set in Ancient Egypt.
Ma’at’s Feather is the story of Qen, a young boy growing up in ancient Egypt. He is part of a farming family, and we discover how their livelihood is totally dependent on the River Nile...
Texts for the Classroom: Ma’at’s Feather
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The digital revolution
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
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...
The digital revolution
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What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
Primary History article
The government's 2010 White Paper makes clear that the history curriculum will be reviewed. This is the ideal time to consider that very contentious issue - What History Should We Teach? And who better to ask than those who really know and understand what the curriculum will look and feel...
What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
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Effective implementation in primary history
Primary History article
In this useful article, Matt Flynn uses the Education Endowment Foundation implementation process (2024) to exemplify how history subject leaders can affect positive whole school change and develop their history provision in line with their school’s needs. He shares the process through a developed example, providing an excellent scaffold that history...
Effective implementation in primary history
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) in primary history – take CARE!
Primary History article
Teaching has embraced many revolutionary changes before: the photocopier, the calculator, the internet, even the smartboard! The Assistant Director-General of UNESCO (2023) though feels that these could pale into insignificance when compared to the rise of AI. This article looks at ways in which Generative AI might be used by...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in primary history – take CARE!
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History and language
Primary History article
Literacy was at the heart of the Nuffield Primary History Project. The paper below summarises the eight linguistic areas which were a major focus. Here there is considerable congruence with the proposed 2014 NC for English and Literacy with its language across the curriculum focus...
History and language
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War memorials as a local history resource
Primary History article
War Memorials Trust (WMT) is the charity that works for the protection and conservation of war memorials in the UK. It defines a war memorial as ‘any physical object created, erected or installed to commemorate those involved in or affected by a conflict or war' (WMT 2009, ‘Definition of a...
War memorials as a local history resource
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Primary History 66
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Editorial
05 The National Curriculum For History From September 2014: The View From Ofsted - Michael Maddison HMI
08 HA Primary News
09 Ideas for Assemblies - Polly Tucknott and Helen Maddison (Read article)
10 Early years foundation stage - Hilary Cooper (Read article)
12 Curriculum planning: How to...
Primary History 66
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An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri
Primary History 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...
An Olympic Great? Dorando Pietri
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Using a local historical figure as a stimulus for history in the English National Curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial comment: Ben Screech indicates how new trainees are being trained to adapt to the opportunities that the Historical, Geographical and Social Studies area of the New National Curriculum offers.
Using a local historical figure as a stimulus for history in the English National Curriculum
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Visual literacy: Look, talk, write - Using a picture to extend vocabulary
Primary History article
Editorial note: Primary History's theme edition on Visual Literacy, PH 49, Summer 2008, addressed the role of visual literacy in developing pupil language: spoken, enacted and written.
Introduction - words for pictures
Stimulus - child engagement
Some years ago, a friend's eight year old daughter arrived with a pack of...
Visual literacy: Look, talk, write - Using a picture to extend vocabulary
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Music in the history curriculum
Primary History article
Music is a dimension of teaching history that is under used. Rosie explores key ideas about its value for teaching history. The first Aim of the proposed 2014 National Curriculum highlights the role of history: perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles...
Music in the history curriculum
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Where might the Gunpowder Plot sit within the principles of the new model curriculum?
Primary History article
The government has proposed creating a model curriculum for history. This will contain a range of non-statutory and supplementary guidance to focus history teaching. In July 2022, terms of reference to identify principles and approaches underpinning the model history curriculum were published. There will be an advisory panel that will...
Where might the Gunpowder Plot sit within the principles of the new model curriculum?
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Playing in the pandemic: Introducing the Play Observatory
Primary History article
What happens to children’s play in a global pandemic? In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping across the world, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from University College London and the University of Sheffield was beginning to plan a project to address this central question.
We began with history in...
Playing in the pandemic: Introducing the Play Observatory
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Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Below is a one-page outline of a wonderful briefing replete with visual and textual sources and teaching ideas from The Cambridge Schools Classics Project (CSC P). The outline below consists of the full introduction...
Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
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Powerful Pedagogy
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The introduction of National Curriculum History in England as a statutory subject in 1989/90 faced primary teachers with a major challenge of how to teach a de facto new subject. The Nuffield Foundation funded a curriculum...
Powerful Pedagogy
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Principles for a history curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In the mid 1990s the Nuffield Foundation funded the development of a primary history curriculum for Yaroslavl in Russia. It was a contemporary curriculum, choosing issues and concepts of central concern to contemporary society and studying their...
Principles for a history curriculum
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One of my favourite history places: Conwy
Primary History feature
The medieval walled town of Conwy, situated by the River Conwy and surrounded by the stunning and rugged Welsh countryside, is well deserving of its status as a World Heritage Site and is also my favourite history place.
Approach the town from the east side and the first thing you...
One of my favourite history places: Conwy
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‘No one else knows this’: Scottish primary schools using ICT to investigate local history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
John W Robertson explains how computer databases can be used by primary school children to investigate local history.
‘No one else knows this’: Scottish primary schools using ICT to investigate local history
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To boldly go: exploring the explorers
Primary History article
Exploration and a curiosity about the world are key human characteristics that have shaped and continue to shape our behaviour. Nowhere is this more true than with younger children who relish the opportunity to investigate their environment and all it contains. Promoting this natural curiosity and introducing stimulating challenge should...
To boldly go: exploring the explorers
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One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall
Article
Choosing Hadrian’s Wall as one of my favourite places is a bit of a cheat really as it is a 73-mile-long (80 Roman miles) wall punctuated with a whole range of 20 individual sites each worth a visit; from mile castles and forts to desolate sections with fabulous views or...
One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall
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Standards in primary history: onward and upward? A view from OFSTED
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
An OFSTED advisor discusses their views on the standards of primary history.
Standards in primary history: onward and upward? A view from OFSTED
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The Battle of Britain
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
David Field gives a descriptive account of a History Club's project on the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain
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Diversity and the History Curriculum
Article
It's very dangerous if you make it seem like history is the province of a certain segment of society. History should belong to and include all of us. The curriculum needs to appeal to as many children as possible or a number of them could become disenchanted with education because they...
Diversity and the History Curriculum
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Case study 3: All hands on deck!
Primary History article
Editorial note: A perfect complement to Barbara's articles is Helen Horler's. ‘ARTEFACT HANDLING AT BRUNEL'S SS GREAT BRITAIN ...Touch, Look, Listen, Smell - But Please Don't Taste' in Primary History 54, 2010.
Introduction: Time Helmet
For those who yawn at the prospect of yet another "famous person", and wonder how...
Case study 3: All hands on deck!
