-
A trail of garnet and gold: Sri Lanka to Anglo-Saxon England
Primary History Article
Sri Lankan garnet in Anglo-Saxon graves?
In 2009 news broke of a fabulous hoard of gold and garnet military ornaments unearthed in a Staffordshire field. TV reports mentioned the garnet might have come from Sri Lanka or India, but how could it have got here? I began reading up what used to be called ‘The Dark...
A trail of garnet and gold: Sri Lanka to Anglo-Saxon England
-
The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
Primary History article
Before the Romans arrived the islands which now make up Britain were populated with a variety of relatively large and small fortified or defended settlements. The people living here were usually part of tribes or clans and they probably raided each other's territory for cattle and other animals. The majority of people farmed in some way,...
The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
-
What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
Primary History article
What is a trade directory?
Trade directories are the equivalent of the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages. They were published on a county or city basis every year and contain detailed descriptions of every village and town in the county. They also contain pages and pages of advertisements, for...
What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
-
Introducing local history: the Fusehill Workhouse Project
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Master and Mistress of the Workhouse refused to talk to any of us as she was adamant that nothing she could remember would be very interesting!
Of course disappointments like this have to be accepted and...
Introducing local history: the Fusehill Workhouse Project
-
Using the back cover image: Mummified cat
Primary History feature
For hundreds of years, travellers to Egypt have marvelled at the amazing monuments evident throughout the country. The treasures of Ancient Egypt became more fascinating after the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799, which led to the deciphering of the hieroglyphic language. Many Victorian explorers returned to their European...
Using the back cover image: Mummified cat
-
Using artefacts to develop young children’s understanding of the past
Primary History article
In the children’s picture book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Wilfrid is a small boy who meets Miss Nancy, an old lady who has lost her memory. Wilfrid wants to help, and so he carefully fills a basket with special objects and takes them to her. He places a medal in...
Using artefacts to develop young children’s understanding of the past
-
Using the back cover image: Oxford Street in the 1960s
Primary History feature
Photographs are very useful and productive documents when teaching history. They provide a snapshot of the past such as this one from just outside Selfridges on Oxford Street in London c.1962-64. Combined with further images from Heritage Explorer, clips from Pathé News, extracts from the 1911 Census, locally gathered images...
Using the back cover image: Oxford Street in the 1960s
-
Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
There is a huge range of moving image material that provides, or purports to provide, direct documentary coverage of many historical events over the last 105 years. You can access much that is suitable for primary children from television and the video...
Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
-
Sutton Hoo - Classroom archaeology in the digital age
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The class had composed its Anglo-Saxon funeral poem for Raedwald, an Anglo-Saxon king, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A6dwald_of_East_Anglia, the high king or Bretwalda of all seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the early seventh century as well as being King...
Sutton Hoo - Classroom archaeology in the digital age
-
Doing history with objects - A museum's role
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
If you have heard the excited buzz of voices as a class of children enters a museum you will be aware of their potential as inspiring learning spaces. Teaching in a museum context we see this...
Doing history with objects - A museum's role
-
Using the back cover image: Reconstructing the Romans
Primary History feature
Reconstruction drawings, diagrams and models are vital examples of interpretation that we can use to help pupils understand the past. On one level they help to fire imagination, while on another they offer a way of presenting important historical facts.
The image overleaf is a reconstruction drawing of Chester's Roman...
Using the back cover image: Reconstructing the Romans
-
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?
-
Developing enjoyable historical investigations
Primary History article
About 2,000 years ago, a baby was born. No, not that baby. Not Jesus. This baby was a girl. Where she was born and what she was called we don't know but I'll call her Helena - it feels rude to go on just calling her ‘she'. When Helena grew up she became wealthy. Perhaps...
Developing enjoyable historical investigations
-
Why stories?
Primary History article
Please note: this article was written before the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and references may no longer be relevant.
During the Early Years and Foundation Stage children should listen to stories, ask how and why and talk about the past (DfE 2012). Young children are comfortable with stories. Through...
Why stories?
-
Ancient Sumer
Primary History article
For many teachers and children alike, Ancient Sumer will be completely new. Although Sumer has always been an option for teaching about Early Civilisations, the fame of Ancient Egypt, as well as being a tried-and-tested topic, has meant that Sumer has perhaps been overlooked. There is little danger of failing...
Ancient Sumer
-
Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
Primary History feature
This image is a reconstruction, or interpretation, by Peter Dunn, an artist, of what Sandbach Crosses might have looked like in the ninth century. They are one of the few remaining Anglo-Saxon stone crosses in the country. They stand in the market place in Sandbach, Cheshire. You can find a...
Using the back cover image: Sandbach Crosses - an Anglo-Saxon market cross
-
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.)
-
The Maya: a 4,000-year-old civilisation in the Americas
Primary History article
Obscured by the fame of the Aztec empire or shrouded by a veil of mystery, the cultural history of the Maya has generally been misunderstood by the British public. Maya civilisation developed in a territory the size of Germany and Denmark together (nearly 400,000 km2). This vast territory shows three...
The Maya: a 4,000-year-old civilisation in the Americas
-
What do we mean by Big Picture History?
Primary History article
Perhaps the best way to start thinking about Big Picture history is to say what it is not - it is not about rote learning dates or remembering ‘famous people and events' - Alfred the Great, The Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII, Florence Nightingale ....and so on! This factual knowledge...
What do we mean by Big Picture History?
-
Stone Age to Iron Age - overview and depth
Primary History article
Stone Age to Iron Age covers around 10,000 years, between the last Ice Age and the coming of the Romans. Such a long period is difficult for children to imagine, but putting the children into a living time-line across the classroom might help. In one sense not a lot happens...
Stone Age to Iron Age - overview and depth
-
Using the back cover image: Windmill Hill
Primary History feature
The back cover image is a reconstruction of prehistoric life based on the English Heritage site Windmill Hill. Such images are of great value to the teacher in bringing the distant past to life, and in deepening pupil understanding of its historical significance. Using these sorts of illustrations can help...
Using the back cover image: Windmill Hill
-
A view from the KS1 classroom - investigating an artefact
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In the autumn of 2009 I saw some of the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and stood in awe at the skills of the craftsmen. Reminded so vividly of the...
A view from the KS1 classroom - investigating an artefact
-
Slavery in Britain
Primary History article
Images reflect the social customs and attitudes of the society in which they are produced, and we may nowdisapprove of these attitudes. Conversely, our own ideas of what is right and wrong may well have been unacceptable in the past. Among these are the rights accorded to children, the disabled,...
Slavery in Britain
-
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
-
Teaching famous people at key stage one
Primary History article
The draft English NC for history highlights the study of ‘significant individuals and people'. Michelle Dexter provides an insight on how to approach this biographical requirement; it also opens up biography as a major genre for pupils to master - augmenting their development of literacy...
Teaching famous people at key stage one
