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Polychronicon 126: Stonehenge
Teaching History feature
Secondary history ought to pay more attention to stones:
1. they are accessible, logistically and educationally, and highly instructive. The Neolithic is everywhere, and generally speaking, free2. venture outside the classroom, into real space or cyberspace, and you stumble into it eventually.3. Archaeological interpretation is an accessible way into aspects...
Polychronicon 126: Stonehenge
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Triumphs Show 116: A practical way of teaching the complexities of ‘The Troubles’ at GCSE
Teaching History feature
Helping pupils to understand sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland is not easy. For pupils to comprehend the origins and complexities of ‘the Troubles’ they need a big picture. That big picture could be viewed as the interaction of three concepts: time, place and identity. If pupils can at least glimpse...
Triumphs Show 116: A practical way of teaching the complexities of ‘The Troubles’ at GCSE
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Memorialisation and the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme
HA Teacher Fellowship: Conflict, Art and Remembrance
In this podcast Simon Bendry, Programme Director for the UCL Institute of Education’s First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, discusses the programme and its impact.
This podcast was recorded as part of the Teacher Fellowship Programme on Conflict, Art and Remembrance.
Memorialisation and the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme
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Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
Teaching History article
Reflection and evaluation are key tools in the box of the successful history teacher. However, a focus on resources or exam results is futile unless a desire to develop pupils’ historical understanding is at the heart of the evaluation process. Maria Osowiecki’s department faced two problems: how to develop their...
Miss, now I can see why that was so important: using ICT to enrich overview at GCSE
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Women and Gender in the French Wars
The Napoleonic Wars
In this podcast Dr Louise Carter critically examines the role of women in Britain during the French Revolution. During these wars, women were typically called on for army cooking, laundry, nursing and spying, and as such were considered part of the war machine. While women in the French wars accounted for...
Women and Gender in the French Wars
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Triumphs Show 112: William Bent and family: a personal timeline of the Plains Wars
Article
Using the experiences of William Bent and his family in the 1860s, this resource was designed to develop different kinds of historical thinking. For example, it highlights what a turning point the Sand Creek massacre proved to be.
Triumphs Show 112: William Bent and family: a personal timeline of the Plains Wars
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Triumphs Show 111: Recreating 1930s Europe with the help of Year 9
Teaching History feature
Sally Evans demonstrates how constructing a map of Europe can enhance pupils' understandings on the causations of World War Two.
Triumphs Show 111: Recreating 1930s Europe with the help of Year 9
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High achievement in history in a nutshell
Article
History is a discipline that attempts to understand human beings, the civilisations, cultures, nations and communities that they make and that make them. History is about time because everything human has its time and time runs out: it is about change, development, coming into being and passing away and about...
High achievement in history in a nutshell
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Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
Article
Interpretation of the Cold War is a fascinating area. Many students begin to study it certain pre-formed ideas – gleaned from their parents, perhaps, or from films or computer games. Historians have interpreted it in different ways – and those who believe in the ‘twenty-year rule’ that historical judgment is...
Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
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Mussolini's missing marbles: simulating history at GCSE
Teaching History article
Arthur Chapman and James Woodcock have collaborated before: Woodcock extended Chapman’s familiar casual metaphor of the final straw breaking a poor abused camel’s back. Here, they collaborate more explicitly to suggest a means of teaching students to produce adequately nuanced historical explanation. Their two central ideas are to produce a...
Mussolini's missing marbles: simulating history at GCSE
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Triumphs Show 109: strengthening the quality and popularity of post-16 history
Teaching History feature
Why is it, I wonder, that Rednock students enjoy their history so much and why have so many opted for the subject at ‘AS’ Level? This new course, designed to bridge the gap between GCSE and ‘A’ Level, has allowed a new calibre of student to enrol. The ability range,...
Triumphs Show 109: strengthening the quality and popularity of post-16 history
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Triumphs Show 117: Helping Year 9 to think and feel their way through the origins of the Holocaust
Teaching History feature
Dave Woodcraft is passionate about engaging students and making them care about the past. He is unrepentant about wanting his lessons to have an emotional impact and a relevant, immediate appeal. To this end, he frequently uses modern parallels in his classroom to make the point that issues in the...
Triumphs Show 117: Helping Year 9 to think and feel their way through the origins of the Holocaust
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Czech Uranium and Stalin's Bomb
Article
Z.A.B. Zeman uncovers a fateful link between Czechoslovakia’s brief monopoly of uranium in Europe and the country’s subordination to the USSR. The great uranium rush started in 1943 and lasted for about seven years. Unlike the gold rushes of the past, uranium did not promise untold riches to individuals but...
Czech Uranium and Stalin's Bomb
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Cholera and the Fight for Public Health Reform in Mid-Victorian England
Article
Of the many social changes that occurred during the Victorian age, public health reform is widely agreed to be one of the most significant. In the early Victorian era the vast majority of Britons drank water from murky ponds and rivers, carried to their dwellings in buckets; and their excrement...
Cholera and the Fight for Public Health Reform in Mid-Victorian England
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Sir William Petty: Scientist, Economist, Inventor, 1623-1687
Article
In December 1687 Sir William Petty, a founder member, attended the annual dinner of the Royal Society. He was obviously seriously ill and in 'greate pain' and shortly afterwards, on December 16th, he died in his house in Piccadilly, opposite St James Church. It was a quiet end to a...
Sir William Petty: Scientist, Economist, Inventor, 1623-1687
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The Press and the Public during the Boer War 1899-1902
Article
Dr Jacqueline Beaumont Hughes considers some aspects of the role of the Press during the Boer War. The conflict between Great Britain and the Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State which slipped into war in October 1899 was to become the most significant since the Crimean war. It...
The Press and the Public during the Boer War 1899-1902
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Spinning with the Brain: Women's Writing in Seventeenth Century England
Article
Norma Clarke and Helen Weinstein consider new approaches to the presentation of women writers on BBC radio. 'True it is, Spinning with the Fingers, is more proper to our Sex than Studying or Writing Poetry, which is Spinning with the Brain; but, having no skill in the art of the...
Spinning with the Brain: Women's Writing in Seventeenth Century England
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The Eighteenth Century in Britain: Long or Short?
Article
W. A. Speck reviews an historical debate central to the interpretation of the eighteenth century in Britain. Few British historians treat the eighteenth century as consisting simply of the hundred years from 1701 to 1800. Until recently political historians tended to end it in 1783. Many textbooks reflect this treatment...
The Eighteenth Century in Britain: Long or Short?
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What do we feel we are?
Article
I was once told that family history was second only to pornography in the list of most visited websites. I'm not sure of the truth of this but if the popularity of the BBC 2's 'Who do you think you are?' is anything to go by, I wouldn't doubt it....
What do we feel we are?
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Nutshell
Article
This edition of 'Nutshell' discusses 'hybrid' history.
Nutshell
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Queen Anne
18th Century British History
In this podcast Lady Anne Somerset looks at the life, reputation and legacy of Queen Anne – the last of the Stuart monarchs, and the first sovereign of Great Britain.
Anne was born on 6 February 1665 in London, the second daughter of James, Duke of York, brother of Charles II. Like many...
Queen Anne
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Sense, relationship and power: uncommon views of place
Teaching History article
Liz Taylor invites history teachers to consider how diverse and uncommon the ‘common’ person’s experience of place might be. She draws upon cultural geography to show how words like ‘place’, ‘space’ and ‘landscape’ can be unpacked and questioned and so become better tools for pupils’ critical thinking in both geography...
Sense, relationship and power: uncommon views of place
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Triumphs Show 102: communicating historical difference to children with literacy problems
Teaching History feature
With the summer break stretching forth its welcome hand and the final lesson with my lowband Year 7 class looming, I wanted to ensure that the enthusiasm and dedication that this class had shown throughout the year was kept alive over the holiday period. We had been studying the Norman...
Triumphs Show 102: communicating historical difference to children with literacy problems
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Polychronicon 123: Gladstone and Disraeli
Teaching History feature
Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' focuses on the interpretations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
Polychronicon 123: Gladstone and Disraeli
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Polychronicon 122: The Gunpowder Plot
Teaching History feature
Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' focuses on interpretations of the Gunpowder Plot.
Polychronicon 122: The Gunpowder Plot
