-
Helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
Teaching History article
A host of histories: helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
Described by the author Monica Ali as a building that ‘sparks the imagination and sparks conversations', 19 Princelet Street, now a Museum of Diversity and Immigration, captivated the imagination of teacher David Waters. He...
Helping Year 9s explore multiple narratives through the history of a house
-
'...trying to count the stars': using the story of Bergen-Belsen to teach the Holocaust
Teaching History article
Maria Osowiecki's search for the right questions to frame her students' study of the Holocaust was driven initially by the proximity of her school to the site of Bergen-Belsen, and the particular interests and concerns of her students as members of British Forces families. But, as this article richly demonstrates,...
'...trying to count the stars': using the story of Bergen-Belsen to teach the Holocaust
-
A hankering for the blank spaces: enabling the very able to explore the limits of GCSE
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Many of us would love to have the problems encountered by Oliver Knight at his previous school. His students were simply doing too well - leaving him wondering how to stretch them to the limit...
A hankering for the blank spaces: enabling the very able to explore the limits of GCSE
-
Denis Shemilt's four stages of adolescent ideas about historical methods in a nutshell
Article
Denis Shemilt's four stages of adolescent ideas about historical methods in a nutshell.
Denis Shemilt's four stages of adolescent ideas about historical methods in a nutshell
-
Why can't they just live together happily, Miss?' Unravelling the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict at GCSE
Teaching History article
How often do our students long for black and white rather than the shades of grey that history generally presents us with? Understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict is all about understanding diversity and complexity in all their shades of grey. Alison Stephen, teaching in an immensely diverse school herself, is determined...
Why can't they just live together happily, Miss?' Unravelling the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict at GCSE
-
Stretching the straight jacket of assessment: use of role play and practical demonstration to enrich pupils' experience of history at GCSE and beyond
Teaching History article
As in his previous, popular and influential Teaching History articles, Ian Luff has once again provided us with a wide range of high-quality, practical activities informed by a rigorous and persuasive rationale. This time, he has turned his attention to the use of role play and active demonstration at GCSE...
Stretching the straight jacket of assessment: use of role play and practical demonstration to enrich pupils' experience of history at GCSE and beyond
-
History GCSE Specification Comparison Tool
GCSE Resource
This short guidance is designed to help you compare the 9-1 GCSE specifications. The first examinations of these new linear GCSEs was in the summer of 2018.
History GCSE Specification Comparison Tool
-
Cunning Plan 108: teaching Tudor architecture
Teaching History feature
In this edition of 'Cunning Plan' Diana Laffin illustrates how Tudor Architecture can be taught.
Cunning Plan 108: teaching Tudor architecture
-
A guide to Assessment Reform at Key Stage 4
Briefing Pack
Big changes in assessment at Key Stage 4 took place the last time specifications were reformed. If you want to compare the assessment approaches taken by different examination Boards, then this handy briefing guide will provide you with the introductory information you need to be able to make sense of...
A guide to Assessment Reform at Key Stage 4
-
Revisiting chronological knowledge from before 1066
Article
Thinking about...the study of an aspect or theme in British history that revisits or extends pupils' chronological knowledge from before 1066Alf Wilkinson presents a personal exploration of how we might use this Key Stage 3 unit to help our students develop a coherent understanding of history.
Revisiting chronological knowledge from before 1066
-
Using historical discourse to find narrative coherence in the GCSE period study
Teaching History article
When planning a GCSE period study on the American West, Alex Ford wrestled with reconciling the content demands of the examination specifications with the need to provide his students with a memorable narrative. In this article, Ford shows how he drew on the latest academic scholarship to construct a rigorous,...
Using historical discourse to find narrative coherence in the GCSE period study
-
Shaping the debate: why historians matter more than ever at GCSE
Teaching History article
The question of how to prepare students to succeed in the examination while also ensuring that they are taught rigorous history remains as relevant as ever. Faced with preparing students to answer a question that seemingly precluded argument, Rachel Foster and Kath Goudie demonstrate how they used historical scholarship both to...
Shaping the debate: why historians matter more than ever at GCSE
-
Edward I
Links to Articles & Podcasts
The Nation of the Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath
The Scottish Wars of Independence
Edward I: Relations between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Edward I: Law and State
Edward I
-
Film: Choosing the migration unit for GCSE
A Departmental Journey
When the first revised GCSE specifications were launched in 2016, Sharon Aninakwa and her team at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College in North London made the decision to change their thematic unit to a study of migration. Some years later, they have a chance to reflect upon...
Film: Choosing the migration unit for GCSE
-
Move Me On 173: teaching the GCSE thematic study
The problem page for history mentors
This feature of Teaching History is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical help to all involved in training new history teachers. Each issue presents a situation in initial teacher education/training with an...
Move Me On 173: teaching the GCSE thematic study
-
Here ends the lesson: shaping lesson conclusions
Teaching History journal article
Reflecting on her efforts to improve her trainee’s lesson conclusions, Paula Worth decided to brush up her own. A journey of self-evaluation led her to revisit the Cambridge Conclusions Project. Through its lens, she judged her own lesson conclusions wanting. Worth examines the way in which the final episode of...
Here ends the lesson: shaping lesson conclusions
-
Beyond tokenism: diverse history post-14
Teaching History Article
Nick Dennis shows how a ‘multidirectional memory’ approach to teaching history can move history teachers beyond seeing black history as separate or distracting from the history that must be aught at examination level. He gives examples of ways in which a diverse history can be built into examination courses, strengthening...
Beyond tokenism: diverse history post-14
-
The Crusades: links
Links to Articles & Podcasts
An HA Podcasted History: The Crusades - The First, Second & Third Crusade and the Legacy of the Crusades
The First Crusade
The First Crusade: Eastern Sources and Different Interpretations
The Miraculous First Crusade
The Crusades: links
-
International relations
Links to Articles & Podcasts
An HA Podcasted History: The Cold War
The Road to World War II
The World War I peace treaties
The League of Nations
International relations
-
Medicine - GCSE
Links to Articles
GCSE Thematic Study LinksMedicine:
Medicine - GCSE
-
Big Picture History - GCSE
Links to Articles
GCSE Thematic Study LinksBigger picture history and teaching change and continuity over time.
Big Picture History - GCSE
-
Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
Teaching History article
A place for individual enquiry? Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
Most history teachers will, at some point, recognise the tension between teaching an engaging history course while at the same time meeting the requirements of an exam specification. Mark Fowle and Ben Egelnick reflect here on how...
Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
-
Move Me On 149: how to provide appropriate support for particular students
Teaching History feature
This issue's problem: Helen Troy is uncertain how to provide appropriate support for certain students without restricting what they can achieve.
Helen showed considerable determination in securing her teacher training place. Her own education had been within a highly selective school system and her first application was unsuccessful because of...
Move Me On 149: how to provide appropriate support for particular students
-
The Irish in Britain 1815-1914
Classic Pamphlet
Irish migration to Britain has a long and chequered history, yet only in recent years have historians examined this subject in depth, through a growing body of local, regional and national studies which have supplemented the earlier pioneering research of J. E. Handley and J. A. Jackson. These studies have...
The Irish in Britain 1815-1914
-
Cunning Plan 183: Teaching a broader Britain, 1625–1714
Teaching History feature
‘Gruesome!’ was how we decided to describe our teaching of seventeenth-century British history, although ‘inadequate’ was probably more accurate. Oh, how much was wrong! We had…
Incoherence. The Civil War and Protectorate years plonked in between the Elizabethan Age and the origins of the industrial revolution. We had lost years!
A...
Cunning Plan 183: Teaching a broader Britain, 1625–1714
