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Film: Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin
Article
In-person tickets to HA Annual Conference 2023 are now limited but you can still book for an incredible virtual programme. To give you a taster of the fantastic sessions on offer, we've published one of the sessions from last year's HA Conference on Rome in the world/the world in Rome with...
Film: Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin
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Baghdad: what were its connections across the medieval world?
Primary History article
Baghdad of the Abbasid Caliphate was an architectural marvel, a round city protected by huge walls and surrounded by an intricate canal system. At the centre lay the caliph’s palace with a cupola of green, and the Great Mosque. The city was a series of concentric circles. The surrounding walls were over 240...
Baghdad: what were its connections across the medieval world?
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Teaching about ‘these islands’ since 1066
Primary History article
This article builds on an earlier publication in Primary History Issue 89 which considered the history of ‘these islands’ before 1066 in the primary history curriculum. Both articles address the first aim of the National Curriculum which indicates that children should:
know and understand the history of these islands as...
Teaching about ‘these islands’ since 1066
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School war memorials as the subject for enquiry-based learning
Primary History article
A visit to a local war memorial to coincide with Remembrance Day leaves a lasting legacy. Every year, groups of primary school children visit a war memorial in their town and village or local church, and increasingly benefit from educational visits to sites of remembrance such as the National Memorial...
School war memorials as the subject for enquiry-based learning
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History in England’s primary schools: What do secondary history teachers need to know?
HA Update
What’s been happening in primary history lately? Invited to write an update on this, I decided to identify some themes that might be helpful to secondary teachers.
As a senior lecturer in primary education with responsibility for history and as a member of the HA Primary Committee, I was able...
History in England’s primary schools: What do secondary history teachers need to know?
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The Jill Grey collection and Hitchin British schools
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Jill Grey lived in Hitchin and over a period of 25 years, collected over 35,000 items. A11 of the material relates to the history of education and social history of childhood. I am still in the process of cataloguing the collection and...
The Jill Grey collection and Hitchin British schools
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Think like an archaeologist!
Primary History article
Since the great brick-built cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were first excavated in the early twentieth century, other large and thousands of small sites have been discovered. Clay was the raw material (bricks) for Indus architecture and everyday objects. Pottery was produced in industrial quantities on the foot wheel, an...
Think like an archaeologist!
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Mentoring Student Teachers
Primary History article
Up and down the country, providers of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) are involved in applying for reaccreditation so that they can continue to develop and support trainee teachers. This is being done against the backdrop of Ofsted implementing its new inspection framework for ITE, which has seen a number of providers...
Mentoring Student Teachers
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Don't forget key skills!
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
With the pressure on curriculum time in primary schools, and the need to concentrate on literacy and numeracy, many teachers have recently felt that visits outside the classroom are a luxury. The introduction of Curriculum 2000, though, puts renewed importance on learning...
Don't forget key skills!
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Significance and interpretation in primary history
Primary History article
The terms ‘significance’ and ‘interpretation’ often go hand in hand with one another, but what do each of them mean and why is it that they fit together? Understanding both terms separately and how historians use interpretation to identify what is significant in history, and why historians cast their interpretations as to what...
Significance and interpretation in primary history
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Film: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War
The Searchers
Historian Robert Sackville-West joined the HA Virtual Branch in November 2021 to talk about the topic of his book The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War. By the end of the First World War, the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers were unknown. Most were presumed...
Film: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War
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Teaching ‘these islands’ from prehistoric times to 1066
Primary History article
The first aim in the National Curriculum indicates that children should:
Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider...
Teaching ‘these islands’ from prehistoric times to 1066
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What was it like to live here in the past? Resourcing the local study
Primary History article
Finding sources for your local study can be a challenge, particularly if you are not familiar with the history of the area around your school.
Please note: this article uses the Images of England website which has now closed down. The images can still be found via the Historic England website. This...
What was it like to live here in the past? Resourcing the local study
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Teaching primary history through concepts
Article
Teaching history in schools is quite new (it’s only been in the National Curriculum for English state schools since 1991), but the discipline of history as a subject is very ancient.
Thinking and writing in a recognisably historical way can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Herodotus, an ancient...
Teaching primary history through concepts
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Lecture recording: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
A Fistful of Shells
In this Virtual Branch webinar we were joined in conversation with Dr Toby Green on his acclaimed book 'A Fistful of Shells'. Shortlisted for the 2020 Wolfson Prize and winner of the 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, the book explores West Africa from the Rise of the...
Lecture recording: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
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Progression in primary history
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
In this guide Tim Lomas looks at how we can plan for progression in primary history, different measures we can use to check on it, and how we can make it work in practice. It also covers some key ‘dos and don’ts’ and offers some exemplar case studies, including an...
Progression in primary history
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History teaching and learning when you can’t have the children in the classroom
Primary History article
The past year has been difficult, with children across the country sent home in March 2020. Teachers were in the unenviable position of attempting to provide an education for classes we were unable to have adequate contact with. There were children who had very little or no access to a...
History teaching and learning when you can’t have the children in the classroom
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Significance at Key Stage 1
Significance at KS1
Teaching significant individuals remains a key element in Key Stage 1. Significance is an extremely difficult concept to develop with young children, so how do we sow the seeds? This unit looks at just one approach for developing early ideas of significance with young children through the individuals of the...
Significance at Key Stage 1
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Studying The Tudors: Britain and the wider world in Tudor times
E-CPD
The following unit gives some ideas to teachers on how to:a) improve subject knowledge;b) find useful contemporary sources (from Tudor times);c) link sources with the curriculum and with appropriate activities.
Please note: this guide was written before the 2014 National Curriculum and some of the advice may no longer be relevant.
Studying The Tudors: Britain and the wider world in Tudor times
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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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The Origins of Mass Society: Speech, Sex and Drink in Urbanising Britain, 1780-1870
Virtual Branch Lecture Recording
Professor Peter Mandler is the current president of the Historical Association. As part of our 'presidents season' for the HA Virtual Branch he gave a fascinating talk on The Origins of Mass Society: Speech, Sex and Drink in Urbanising Britain, 1780-1870.
In this talk he explores the impact of the changes in...
The Origins of Mass Society: Speech, Sex and Drink in Urbanising Britain, 1780-1870
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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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Epistemic insights: bringing subject disciplines together
Primary History article
"Teaching epistemic insight goes hand in hand with teaching a broad and balanced curriculum. It includes building students’ understanding of the ways that different types of disciplinary knowledge can help us to address questions that bridge subjects and disciplines." (Teaching and Learning about Epistemic Insight brochure, https://crc.up.pt/wp-content/uploads/sites/101/2017/09/epistemic-insight-brochure.pdf)
The Epistemic Insight Project...
Epistemic insights: bringing subject disciplines together
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Leading History in an Independent School
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
In this piece Stuart explores some of the key considerations when leading history in an independent school, including the potential benefits and drawbacks of forging links with other schools, how you can use history to enrich the curriculum in the school, improving the level of CPD in your school, and...
Leading History in an Independent School
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‘Miss, did the Romans build pyramids?’
Primary History article
Miss, did the Romans build pyramids? No Johnny, I think you are confusing the Romans with the Egyptians. Actually, Miss, the Romans did build pyramids – well, at least one – and you can still see it in Rome today!
The pyramid, which is 37 metres [or 125 Roman feet]...
‘Miss, did the Romans build pyramids?’
