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Enriching young children's understanding of time
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As a primary teacher in the United States, I was sometimes caught off guard by students' ideas about time. Some 10-year-olds, I noticed, still could not read a clock or calculate the time between recess and...
Enriching young children's understanding of time
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What made Cleopatra so special?
Article
Ancient Egyptian civilisation is rich and mysterious with distinctive visual imagery and strange animal-headed gods. The exotic differences of the society have always intrigued the western imagination and so they continue to ensure that this is a popular unit with both teachers and children. There are plentiful resources with new...
What made Cleopatra so special?
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Podcast Series: Charles Darwin
Multipage Article
In this set of podcasts Project Director Professor Jim Secord and Associate Director Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project discuss the life, work and legacy of Charles Darwin.
Podcast Series: Charles Darwin
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Significant Individuals: Charles Darwin
Primary History article
Charles Darwin: exploring the man behind the beard – studying the lives of significant individuals in the past
Studying the life of Charles Darwin is an exciting way to meet the requirement in Key Stage 1 to teach significant individuals. But what do we actually know about him, beyond the...
Significant Individuals: Charles Darwin
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Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
Exemplar
Questioning can be used in assessing childrens historical skills, as this example shows.The children were all in Year 4, and were withdrawn from their mixed Year 3/4 class for this lesson. They had covered several aspects of National Curriculum history, including over the past year the Egyptians and a local...
Assessment exemplar: children questioning artefacts
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Creating a school museum
Primary History case study
Using an artefacts loans service Within the UK there is a wealth of museums and heritage sites across the country, offering children, young people and teachers the chance to experience a hands on approach to history and telling the story of our past. However if you are unable to visit...
Creating a school museum
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Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
Primary History article
‘I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves’ – Mary Wollstonecraft
The National Curriculum gives the freedom to select any significant individual and many schools have already chosen those outside the commonly-used ones such as Florence Nightingale, Christopher Columbus and Queen Victoria. There is also...
Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
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Using Folktales, Myths and Legends
Global Learning
This resource was commissioned by the Historical Association to offer teachers an entry point into the new primary History curriculum using stories: folktales, myths and legends from the civilisations, communities and cultures of the statutory programmes of study.
In this resource, pupils are encouraged to recall and retell stories orally,...
Using Folktales, Myths and Legends
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Egyptians, Embalming and Experiences
Primary History article
I am a third year student currently studying on a 4 year degree course at Leeds Trinity University College training to be a primary school teacher. Last year, as part of our History module, we visited the Leeds City Museum and met Esther Amis-Hughes who was then its Learning and...
Egyptians, Embalming and Experiences
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How do pupils understand historical time?
Some evidence from England and the Netherlands
One of the key aims of the English history National Curriculum is to ensure that pupils ‘know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative’. Teaching chronology is also important in the Netherlands. In this article we cover some aspects of teaching and recent research from...
How do pupils understand historical time?
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VE Day 75: free home learning resource
5th May 2020
Lots of organisations in the UK had exciting plans to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day but unfortunately many of them will not now go ahead because of the Covid-19 situation. However, that doesn’t mean that young people can’t begin to understand why the first May bank holiday has...
VE Day 75: free home learning resource
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English Heritage's Heritage Explorer
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
[THINK BUBBLE, has burst, r.i.p... Diogenes, a curmudgeonly Ancient Greek cynic, has taken its place. The original Grumpy Old Man Diogenes typically looks back to a mythical golden age]
Introduction
Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember a time when primary school...
English Heritage's Heritage Explorer
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'Doing Local History' through maps and drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: John Fines produced two case studies of Local History for the Nuffield Primary History Project. One on them is published here for the first time.
'Doing Local History' through maps and drama
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Visits and Museums
Primary History article
Introduction
In February (2012) Michael Gove announced that he was awarding English Heritage £2.7m to encourage children to explore local heritage sites. Who could disagree with his view that ‘local historic environments can be used to inspire pupils by bringing history alive'? However, why stop there? Any visit to a...
Visits and Museums
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Differentiation: Gifted and Talented
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Gifted and talented (G&T) education has a major focus upon differentiation: the identification and support of pupils who have the abilities to perform at the highest levels. The Autumn 2007 edition of Primary History 47 focused upon...
Differentiation: Gifted and Talented
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Pupils as apprentice historians (3)
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Spring 2008 issue of this magazine, Visual Literacy, highlighted the excellent practice in using visual historical sources that exists in many primary schoolsWe should strive to preserve and extend this critical use of visuals, whatever...
Pupils as apprentice historians (3)
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Britain, Europe and the World?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
With the current debate on what content we should teach, and especially with the focus on pupils understanding the history of Britain before they leave school, it is perhaps pertinent to ask how this should link...
Britain, Europe and the World?
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Visual image: boxing boys fresco from Ancient Greece
Lesson Plan
John Fines was working with a class of 28 Year 6 pupils, studying Ancient Greece.
John wrote: Challenge is what the Nuffield Primary History project is all about, and I wanted the class to think hard about the Greeks and to question sources. My learning objectives were for the children...
Visual image: boxing boys fresco from Ancient Greece
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History in the news: George Floyd protest in Bristol – Colston statue toppled
Primary History feature
The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May 2020 sparked off protests against the way in which black people are treated both in America and many countries across the world. Thousands of people attended an anti-racist demonstration in Bristol. A group of the...
History in the news: George Floyd protest in Bristol – Colston statue toppled
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Reformation
Lesson Plan
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The planning of an English church building in 1530, and what happened to it in the period of the Reformation in the 1540s, provides an excellent focus for the children to learn about what the Reformation meant to Tudor men and...
Reformation
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Victorian Britain - Lessons
Lessons
Please note: these free resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.
You could start the Victorians with a story.
See the Victorian chimney sweep short lesson exemplar and the Upstairs Downstairs story in the History section of the Urban Spaces material.
Lessons and short lesson exemplars available on this site:
Victorian Britain: short...
Victorian Britain - Lessons
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Young children and chronology
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
"How did you stop yourself from getting the plague?"
This quotation from a child signals some of the challenges of teaching children about chronology in the primary school. Learning about chronology involves:
Knowing the conventions of...
Young children and chronology
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Think like an archaeologist!
Primary History article
Since the great brick-built cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were first excavated in the early twentieth century, other large and thousands of small sites have been discovered. Clay was the raw material (bricks) for Indus architecture and everyday objects. Pottery was produced in industrial quantities on the foot wheel, an...
Think like an archaeologist!
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Teaching and learning about Grace O'Malley as a significant woman at Key Stage 1
Article
"Why are you so angry Grace?" Teaching and learning about Grace O'Malley as a significant woman at Key Stage 1
Grace O'Malley was an Irish queen in the Tudor period and her story provides insights about life in Ireland at the time of the Elizabethan conquests. Grace, also known as...
Teaching and learning about Grace O'Malley as a significant woman at Key Stage 1
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Tudor Portraits: Who am I?
Lesson Plan
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
‘Who am I?' - what can we tell about this person from the clothes he/she is wearing?
Pupils use pictures and portraits as evidence for social diversity of Tudor life.
Pupils write pen portraits of characters, extending their vocabulary with the...
Tudor Portraits: Who am I?
