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Art and History: Justifying the Links
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
History and Art have been taught as traditional subjects for many years and as cross curricular subjects they compliment each other beautifully. I do not see how we can realistically completely separate them...
Art and History: Justifying the Links
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HA Primary Survey Report 2011
Primary Survey
Primary Teachers need more training for history and they have ideas about what the want to teachThe Historical Association has carried out a survey of Primary teachers across England and Wales revealing that training for teachers at that level is one of their biggest concerns. Primary School Teachers may not...
HA Primary Survey Report 2011
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Your first year as a history subject leader
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
Although the emphasis on good practice changes over time, research over many years has identified some key characteristics of effective subject leadership that enjoy universal consensus. This practical piece from Rob Nixon and Tim Lomas reflects much of this recognised good practice. They offer some general principles you will find...
Your first year as a history subject leader
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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Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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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Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges and Opportunities
Primary History article
“It’s like they’ve gone up a year!” This was the unprompted observation of a teaching assistant at Buckden Primary School last summer, supporting Giles Fullard, a secondary history teacher from Hinchingbrooke School, near Huntingdon leading a lesson with a year 6 class on “Was Boudicca Britain’s first hero?” The scheme...
Effective Primary History Teaching, Challenges and Opportunities
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Back to basics: How might we organise historical knowledge?
Primary History article
There has been much emphasis on pupils having a rich knowledge and this has led to many schools devising knowledge lists and knowledge organisers. This article argues that is a valuable element in a good history curriculum in primary schools but that it is important that this is properly thought...
Back to basics: How might we organise historical knowledge?
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Curriculum planning: How to write a new scheme of work for history
Primary History article
Please note: this article was originally written in early 2014 for schools needing to prepare schemes of work for the new National Curriculum coming into effect that September.
The implementation from September 2014 of the new national curriculum programme of study for history gives you a time-scale for reviewing, refreshing and resourcing your new scheme...
Curriculum planning: How to write a new scheme of work for history
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Delivering school-based CPD as a history subject leader
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
This guide provides primary history subject leaders with clear, practical support for planning and delivering effective school‑based CPD, offering strategies for securing time, engaging all staff, and building consistency across the curriculum. It includes ideas for training activities, guidance on strengthening progression and assessment, and advice for leading confident, purposeful...
Delivering school-based CPD as a history subject leader
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Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
Primary History article
The recent survey of history teaching in primary schools conducted by the Historical Association revealed that the majority of respondents felt that they were short of resources to teach the revised National Curriculum. Not surprisingly most schools look to find resources that do the job cheaply. It is a truism...
Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
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Back to basics: what does a good history lesson look like?
Primary History article
The new emphasis from Ofsted on the importance of the foundation subjects has meant a very welcome renewed interest in history and how it is taught. For years the dominance of literacy and numeracy in the curriculum has meant that time for foundation subjects has at best been compressed, and...
Back to basics: what does a good history lesson look like?
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Film: Unpicking the Ofsted subject report for history
Rich Encounters With the Past
In this webinar, history teachers and consultants Stuart Tiffany and Kerry Somers and Senior lecturer in primary education at Liverpool John Moore's University, Ailsa Fidler discuss the July 2023 history subject report with Ofsted National Lead for history, Tim Jenner.
In the course of the webinar discussion, the key messages...
Film: Unpicking the Ofsted subject report for history
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History through Drama, A Teachers' Guide - Revisited
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
It is now some seventeen years since the publication of our original pamphlet by the Historical Association [HA] as part of the Teaching of History Series (Wilson and Woodhouse, 1990). This article offers a personal review...
History through Drama, A Teachers' Guide - Revisited
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Identity Crisis: History through Science, strange bedfellows or obvious partners?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Science Museum in South Kensington, London is accessible through its website as well as through visiting the building itself and this article considers how history teachers can gain from using the collection and resources...
Identity Crisis: History through Science, strange bedfellows or obvious partners?
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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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Primary History Articles for the School History Subject Leader
Multipage Article
The Historical Association has been producing its specialist primary journal Primary History since 1992. In that time there have been three editions per year and since 2017 an additional annual digital summer resource.
In 1992 a National Curriculum for history had recently emerged as had the Ofsted inspection process. Since...
Primary History Articles for the School History Subject Leader
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How a history club can work for you and your pupils
Primary History article
Bev Forrest writes: As part of my role as a Historical Association Quality Mark assessor I am privileged to visit schools across the country. In the autumn of 2019, I ventured out into Essex to carry out an assessment at Dilkes Academy. I was delighted to recommend gold status for...
How a history club can work for you and your pupils
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Case Study: Historical information and the local community
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The ICT revolution
A paper register, a pink-lined A4 mark book and a written school log book are surely historical artefacts? The transition from paper to digital technology continues, changing the world of the classroom teacher whose working life like mine,...
Case Study: Historical information and the local community
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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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How the Quality Mark for history can support you as a subject leader
Article
Whether you have been a history subject lead for a while or are new to the role, the HA’s Quality Mark (QM) for Primary History can help to support you in developing the subject in your school.
In this guide experienced Quality Mark assessor and primary educator Sue Temple outlines...
How the Quality Mark for history can support you as a subject leader
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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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A visit to the Red Lodge, Bristol: using ICT to record and communicate children's learning in history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
There is a huge potential for using ICT to enhance children’s historical learning. This article suggests ways in which ICT was employed to record children’s impressions of their visit to an historical building.
A visit to the Red Lodge, Bristol: using ICT to record and communicate children's learning in history
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Creating effective history displays
Primary History article
Having been an history co-ordinator for over 15 years, I was fortunate enough to be able to plan a wide range of history displays which covered multiple periods. I enjoyed it because, for me, it provided the opportunity to inspire, inform and provoke a response. When preparing a display, I would...
Creating effective history displays
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Insights from a year of leading the development of a ‘knowledge-rich curriculum’
Primary History article
Raynville Primary School serves a highly disadvantaged area of West Leeds and we work hard to provide our children with the best opportunities to learn and enjoy their time with us. One jewel in the crown of our school’s curriculum is children’s historical learning as part of a knowledge-rich curriculum....
Insights from a year of leading the development of a ‘knowledge-rich curriculum’
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Using the back cover image: Exploring the collections of Victorian naturalists
Primary History feature
Many museums around the country house natural history collections that offer children the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of species from around the world. Using the collections of Victorian explorers and naturalists offers children a historical perspective with a cross-curricular approach which has a great appeal. Yet for...
Using the back cover image: Exploring the collections of Victorian naturalists
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Ofsted and primary history
Primary History article
Firstly, I would like to introduce myself as Ofsted’s new Subject Lead for history.
Despite the many challenges of the past year, it is an exciting time for history education. I am very pleased that the number of primary history teachers who are now part of the HA community has...
Ofsted and primary history
