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OFSTED, primary history and creativity
Primary History article
Co-ordinators concerns: OFSTED, primary history and creativity
I'm told the emphasis in schools now is for a rigorous approach to history where the children are taught the main facts and features of history. I recall a time not so long ago when the whole curriculum was about creativity but surely...
OFSTED, primary history and creativity
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Promoting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage in your primary history curriculum
Primary History article
It goes without saying that the events of Black Lives Matter have prompted many leaders and teachers to take a step back and reflect on their curriculum content and how effectively it reflects the diverse story of our islands. However, it is not just Black History that is requiring more prominence...
Promoting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage in your primary history curriculum
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Sources for the Great Fire of London and its context
Primary History feature
Nina Sprigge reveals two interesting sources that can supplement teaching the Fire of London.
Fire of London: fundraising for refugees
The receipt on the back cover provides evidence of national fundraising in 1666. It is touching that people from Cowfold, a little village outside London, cared enough to want to...
Sources for the Great Fire of London and its context
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Storytelling the past
Primary History article
This article will demonstrate how to engage children through storytelling and how it can be used to develop their critical understanding of the past.
Why story?
Despite their common derivation, the words ‘history’ and ‘story’ suggest very different kinds of knowledge, the former carrying overtones of detached understanding of the...
Storytelling the past
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History, ICT and the digital age
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Three things are important
1.Don't fall for the hype
You are not a bad teacher if you are not using a lot of technology in history or any other area! Research evidence does not support many of the claims made about...
History, ICT and the digital age
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Primary History summer resource 2021: Using historical sources
Primary member resource
This year's free summer resource for primary members looks at using historical sources with primary pupils. Introducing children to sources is an important part of understanding the disciplinary nature of history. One of the key ideas we need to get pupils to understand is that history is based on sources, which...
Primary History summer resource 2021: Using historical sources
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Artefacts in history education
Article
In history when we say objects we mean artefacts, that is, things made by people rather than natural objects. They provide archaeological evidence and can have various forms, from something tiny like a button to a huge building or ruins. The most ordinary objects can yield much historical evidence and...
Artefacts in history education
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History, artefacts and storytelling in the 2011 primary curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article will argue that although history can seem a ‘hard' discipline for young children, it can be made accessible and exciting through telling stories about objects. The article does not contain advice about obtaining objects:...
History, artefacts and storytelling in the 2011 primary curriculum
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Progression and coherence in history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
"The focus for much of the planning and the teaching is on pockets of knowledge at basic levels. Thus, the notion that pupils can progress and do better over time in history is not well established...
Progression and coherence in history
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Investigating the Indus Valley (2600-1900 B.C.)
Primary History article
In 1924 The Illustrated London News broke the story of a sensational discovery in the Indian subcontinent. Ruined mounds at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, 600 km apart, were forgotten cities of a lost civilisation. Nearly all we know about the Indus Civilisation comes from archaeology. What survives leaves many unanswered questions,...
Investigating the Indus Valley (2600-1900 B.C.)
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Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bronze Age?
Primary History article
It’s September 1992 and in Dover archaeologists from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust are working alongside construction workers when six metres below ground they find some waterlogged planks. Thankfully, an expert in maritime archaeology is on site and he recognises that this could be a lot more than abandoned timber. Uncovering...
Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bronze Age?
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The Shang: What can we tell about an ancient civilisation from one tomb?
Primary History article
The Shang Dynasty of China, based around the Yellow River area, is regarded as the first Chinese dynasty that we have written evidence for. It was established in around 1760 BC when Tang set up his capital in the city of Bo. Over the next 600 or 700 years the Shang Empire grew and shrank,...
The Shang: What can we tell about an ancient civilisation from one tomb?
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Timelines in teaching history
Primary History article
‘History is about time, it subsists in time, time is the medium by which it happens’ (John Fines, Primary History 59, 2011). Yet the fact that time is fundamental to the study of history does not make it any easier to teach (Hoodless, 2008). The abstract nature of time as a concept is...
Timelines in teaching history
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Case Study: Pictorial Recording
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The innovative use of visual images as communication mode and stimulus to writing is provided by Jan, a teacher on one of the Nuffield courses. Children, and adults, have trouble in making effective...
Case Study: Pictorial Recording
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Causation
Your Virtual History Department Meeting
We’ve been talking to our secondary school members and we know how difficult life is for teachers in the current circumstances, so we wanted to lend a helping hand.
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a brand-new and already popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Causation
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Studying the Maya
Article
Most pupils like history, but some struggle with aspects of reading and writing – how can we make history more accessible? This article explores some ways I have found useful in engaging pupils of all abilities. It will focus on activities that might be used in studying the Non-European Society...
Studying the Maya
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Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Three curricular editions of Primary History, PH 50, Autumn 2008 , PH 53, Autumn 2009 and PH 57, Spring 2011 are directly relevant to teaching the Olympics.
PH 50, Autumn 2008 History Education in the 21st...
Primary History and planning for teaching the Olympics - four curricular models
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Diogenes: Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
Primary History article
Diogenes: WHITHER CREATIVITY?! A consideration of the article Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
In June 2010 the journal Primary Headship included an article entitled Creativity and the Primary Curriculum which endeavoured to pull together a range of positions as to where the curriculum might be going in the immediate future. These...
Diogenes: Creativity and the Primary Curriculum
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Popular history: Using the media
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Should we use the media to teach history? Many people who were ‘turned off' history at school have been brought back to it in later life by visits to historic places and especially by television programmes....
Popular history: Using the media
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Eweka's story: Benin and Big Picture History
Article
The prospect of teaching Benin as a non-European Study within the time frame 900-1300 AD is challenging! Traditional oral evidence suggests that the critical event during this period in Benin's past was a transition from the Ogiso to the Eweka Dynasty, named after its first Oba, which resulted in it...
Eweka's story: Benin and Big Picture History
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The National Curriculum for History from September 2014: the view from Ofsted
Article
IntroductionWith the publication on 11 September 2013 of the final version of the revised National Curriculum for September 2014, subject leaders and classroom teachers could start to consider the implications of the proposed changes. For history at Key Stages 1 and 2, some parts of the programmes of study are...
The National Curriculum for History from September 2014: the view from Ofsted
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Significance (Primary)
Article
Please note: the 'What's the Wisdom On' film series has been produced principally for secondary school history teachers, however some of the content is transferrable to a primary setting. Secondary members can view this film here
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Historical Significance (Primary)
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Visual Literacy: Learning through pictures and images
Primary History Article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated.
What questions does the portrait raise in your mind?
What messages does the artist intend to convey?
How does the artist convey those messages to the intended audience? What might have been the circumstances under which the...
Visual Literacy: Learning through pictures and images
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Mini Scaffolds: Charts, Concept webs, Diagrams, Mini-Frames
Primary History article
The language of History develops subject content knowledge and associated vocabulary & phraseology, p. 30. Pupils can record, extend and develop their historical language through using a range of mini-scaffolds or frameworks that they flesh out with teacher guidance and support.
A class can build upon basic historical vocabulary through questioning,...
Mini Scaffolds: Charts, Concept webs, Diagrams, Mini-Frames
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A View from the Classroom - Chronology
Primary History feature
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As a teacher, the passing of time in a classroom may be: challenging, stimulating, appear endless, be subject to constant change, though never dull. Years pass, yet at times it can seem but yesterday, when I...
A View from the Classroom - Chronology
