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Local history and a sense of identity
Article
The history co-ordinator often finds some real challenges as well as opportunities in addressing local history in primary schools. The advantages are well rehearsed – making history relevant to the lives of the children and giving them an improved sense of identity and place through engagement with the ‘real thing’....
Local history and a sense of identity
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Celebrating Success: Quality Mark
London Fields Primary School achieves Gold Award Quality Mark
London Fields is a larger than average primary school situated in Hackney, east London. The school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted in 2011 and again in 2015. The school has a challenging context with free school meals, minority ethnic groups and English as an Additional Language all far in excess...
Celebrating Success: Quality Mark
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Transition Key Stage 2 and 3
Primary History article
It can sometimes seem that the primary and secondary phases of education live in isolation from each other. After all, most primary teachers are generalists (despite sometimes having specialist experience of a particular curriculum area), having to turn their hands to all subjects on the curriculum whatever they feel about...
Transition Key Stage 2 and 3
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Drama - Choosing an approach
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
There is a range of drama strategies that we use all the time. The important point is to select a strategy with which you feel confident. For example, the collective making of a map by the...
Drama - Choosing an approach
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What your local Archive Service can offer to schools
Primary History article
Imagine a place where your pupils become detectives working on mysteries from the past such as the tale of Thomas Sargeant, a 15-year-old factory worker who died in a chemical works in 1898. Your local archive is bursting with stories about real people like this which can give children an...
What your local Archive Service can offer to schools
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Using cemeteries as a local history resource
Primary History article
Why visit a cemetery as part of the history curriculum? Local studies now feature prominently in the primary history curriculum for both key stages. This development challenges teachers to find easilyaccessible, inexpensive and relevant resources on their doorstep. A rich resource which has traditionally been overlooked is the local churchyard...
Using cemeteries as a local history resource
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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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Case Study: Gifted Pupils design new children's museum galleries
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In this article I will describe a G&T museum-based project which we have just trialled with three primary schools in the Ashton Bedminster primary school cluster in Bristol. It was a joint initiative between Bristol’s...
Case Study: Gifted Pupils design new children's museum galleries
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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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Working with other subject leaders
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
History has often been described as an umbrella subject. This is because the nature of history means that we must learn something about the past and this something will encapsulate learning from other subject areas. However, while the history taught in your school can be enriched by other subject areas,...
Working with other subject leaders
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Co-ordinators' concerns: ICT and OFSTED
Primary History feature
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
There is an expectation that we extensively use information technology across the curriculum. I don't mind this but I've always felt a bit uncomfortable. Using it with history always seems to compromise the quality of the history. I am worried though...
Co-ordinators' concerns: ICT and OFSTED
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‘We built a museum’: What does your school resource room look like?
Primary History article
New Eltham in the Royal Borough of Greenwich had teachers and subject leaders tearing their hair out. Despite their best endeavours to keep it tidy, by the end of each half-term it always ended up in a mess. Those busy teachers that never put things back the way they found...
‘We built a museum’: What does your school resource room look like?
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Drama and role play
Primary History article
Drama and Role Play are powerful teaching approaches for language development. The themed edition of Primary History 48, Spring 2008 History, Drama and the Classroom provides a comprehensive introduction and detailed guidance to language development through roleplay and drama. PH 48 contains numerous case-studies illuminating a full range of approaches.
Case-Study...
Drama and role play
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EYFS: What does good curriculum provision look like?
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
In this joint piece, Helen and Rob explore the EYFS Development Matters framework and its relevance to developing children’s understanding of the past. Helen suggests some key resources and approaches which work well in EYFS as well as some key questions to frame discussions with early years staff. Rob shares...
EYFS: What does good curriculum provision look like?
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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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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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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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Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
From the late 1960s until 1989 history was almost universally taught in primary schools as an element in integrated crosscurricular programmes, normally social studies or humanities.
The 1989/1990 National Curriculum: History radically changed this. It introduced...
Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
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British National Curricula For History 1989-2011
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The national history curricula for Northern Ireland, England and Wales have passed through various stages since working groups were set up in England and Wales in 1989. Developments have been distinct, with Northern Ireland having quite...
British National Curricula For History 1989-2011
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Flight
Lesson Plan
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Download the attached lessons below.
Cross-curricular lessons in History, Science, and Design & Technology:
the story of Icarus and his flight to the Sun (is this possible?),
the story of the Montgolfier brothers and their...
Flight
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Urban spaces near you: cross-curricular work
Lesson Resources
This material covers the following areas - see the page on each one:
History
Literacy
Art & Design
Science
Urban spaces such as parks and gardens offer a range of opportunities for children's learning. There children can investigate, observe, wonder, record and create.
Our urban spaces project presents ideas and...
Urban spaces near you: cross-curricular work
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Urban spaces
Lesson Resources
Please note: these free resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum. For a more recent resource see Scheme of work: Local history - the story of our high street.
1. Urban spaces near you: cross-curricular work
History, Literacy, Art & Design, Science: ideas and activities. Citizenship too. These materials are based on...
Urban spaces
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Case Study: Teaching World War 1 and professional development
Primary History case study
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
During the autumn term 2008 I covered World War I as an example of how to attempt a cross curricular project at KS 2 [7-11 age range] with Newly Qualified Teacher Status [QTS] students. During my...
Case Study: Teaching World War 1 and professional development
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Pride in place: What does historical geographical and social understanding look like?
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘Some primary schools are like the High Street in many of our towns. I can predict what I will see before I go through the door. What I want to see is something that gives me...
Pride in place: What does historical geographical and social understanding look like?
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Cross Curricular Project on a famous person
Primary History case study
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
If you are considering studying someone other than Florence Nightingale you have two basic options. You can either choose a local character who would be more relevant to the children, or you could study someone who...
Cross Curricular Project on a famous person
