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Teaching Ancient Egypt
Article
Editorial note: This paper has two sections: first, a background briefing about Ancient Egypt with a timeline and map that introduces the second section's three teaching activities on: building the Great Pyramid of Giza; Hatshepsut, Egypt's great woman pharaoh; and Akhenaten and his attempt to revolutionise Egyptian religion.
‘Hail to thee, O...
Teaching Ancient Egypt
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Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge
Article
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain's past and of the wider world
First, this article considers the reasons why it is essential for children to develop a chronological framework. Next it considers ways in which this framework is necessary for the development of the time concepts set...
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge
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Saxons, Normans and Victorians
Classic Pamphlet
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the Annual Register remarked that the feeling of forlorn-ness which swept the country had no parallel since the death of King Alfred. The men of the new century were driven to seek a Saxon parallel. So too were men at the beginning of the...
Saxons, Normans and Victorians
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Including the Muslim Contribution in the National Curriculum for History
Article
History education has a key role to play in creating the informed, critical attachment of young people to the nation and in creating the feeling that young people belong and can participate in national life.
The Curriculum for Cohesion Team, comprising Muslim and non-Muslim academics and community leaders, believes that...
Including the Muslim Contribution in the National Curriculum for History
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Diversity and the History Curriculum
Article
It's very dangerous if you make it seem like history is the province of a certain segment of society. History should belong to and include all of us. The curriculum needs to appeal to as many children as possible or a number of them could become disenchanted with education because they...
Diversity and the History Curriculum
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Teaching history as a national grand narrative
Article
There is no reason why highly sophisticated, intellectually challenging, creative and enjoyable ways to teach history to young children should not continue when a National Curriculum for History is based upon a country's Grand Narrative, know that knowledge, that can require knowledge of ‘facts' such as key dates, the names...
Teaching history as a national grand narrative
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Virtual Branch: Birds and British History
Article
In his recent book The Cuckoo's Lea Michael J Warren provides a exploration of how birds are entwined with British history, particularly in our place names.
Join us for an exclusive Q&A with the author to weave together literature, history and ornithology and discover a fascinating heritage that matters deeply now when so...
Virtual Branch: Birds and British History
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Recorded webinar: Henry VIII on Tour
Finding a new perspective on the Tudors
During his lifetime, Henry VIII journeyed throughout his kingdom in what are known as royal 'progresses'. In this webinar, Anthony Musson will share research from the AHRC-funded 'Henry on Tour' project which seeks to reassess these progresses by exploring archival sources, archaeology, music and material culture. In addition to contributing...
Recorded webinar: Henry VIII on Tour
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Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
Classic Pamphlet
Nine hundred years have elapsed since the death of Edward the Confessor, the last English king descended directly from Cerdic, king of Wessex in the sixth century - and so from the pagan gods. Nine hundred years are a long time; and if Edward had been succeeded by a son,...
Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
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What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
Article
In this article, Dr Jonathan Durrant (Principal Lecturer in History, University of South Wales) argues that we know no more now than we did in the late 1980s about what witchcraft was as men and women of the early sixteenth century understood it. Dr Durrant looks at evidence from Henry VIII's Witchcraft Act of 1542 to explore British and European perceptions of witches...
What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
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Virtual Branch recording: Tudor Liveliness?
Discovering Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England
In Tudor England, artworks were often described as ‘lively’. What did this mean in a culture where naturalism was an alien concept? And in a time of religious upheaval, when the misuse of images might lure the soul to hell, how could liveliness be a good thing?
In this talk...
Virtual Branch recording: Tudor Liveliness?
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Virtual Branch recording: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom
The Black Crown
How did a man born enslaved on a plantation triumph over Napoleon's invading troops and become king of the first free black nation in the Americas? This is the forgotten, remarkable story of Henry Christophe. Christophe fought as a child soldier in the American War of Independence, before serving in...
Virtual Branch recording: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom
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The Iliad
Lesson Plan
The aims of this Iliad lesson for year 4/5 children are:
to develop an understanding of the weapons and tactics used in ancient Greek warfare
to be able to read and understand a challenging text and extract information from it.
Literacy objectives are to develop the children's skills in:
extracting...
The Iliad
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Learning styles and Cache (Cognitive Acceleration in History Education): Children as thinkers
Article
The teaching of gifted children reflects our beliefs about how they learn and mentally develop. Such learning theories are both explicit and tacit. One such theory – Cognitive Acceleration in History Education [CACHE] – underpins Case Studies 1 & 2 – the Mr Men Mystery, pages 17-21, and The Body...
Learning styles and Cache (Cognitive Acceleration in History Education): Children as thinkers
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Think Bubble: The passion to know why
Article
I gave half an ear recently to a radio debate on the nature of scientific genius. A number of examples were given of infants doing calculus and toddlers designing suspension bridges, but the most convincing statement came from a panellist who defined the phenomenon as ‘the passion to know’. The...
Think Bubble: The passion to know why
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Building St James's spire: Louth's guilds and popular piety in the later middle ages
Virtual Branch Lecture Recording
Medieval historian Dr Claire Kennan continued our Virtual Branch series with a local history talk on the building of St James's spire, Louth.
In her talk Kennan traces the important role that Louth's major guilds of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Holy Trinity played in the building of the St James’s spire. Throughout the...
Building St James's spire: Louth's guilds and popular piety in the later middle ages
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Overground, underground and across the sea
Article
Communication is at the heart of what it is to be human, and the British postal service has helped to shape the modern world as we know it today. From cryptic Victorian Valentine cards to a lion encountered on Salisbury Plain, there is nothing ordinary about the story of the post! The British postal service...
Overground, underground and across the sea
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Learning about the past through toys and games
Article
A learning theme centred on toys and games is perfect for younger children as the Early Years curriculum is, of course, all about learning through play. Planned carefully, it can also provide many opportunities for children to develop their understanding of the past.
Adult-directed learning opportunities
Provide the children with...
Learning about the past through toys and games
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Ideas for Assemblies: Anniversaries
Article
For this issue I have selected an eclectic range of anniversaries. Some are to do with travel and exploration, showing the human spirit of endeavour and wanting to find out more, like Christopher Columbus' epic voyage across the Atlantic, even if, as we now know, the Vikings went before him...
Ideas for Assemblies: Anniversaries
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Local Authority Housing
Classic Pamphlet
Local authority housing has been a distinctive feature of the British housing system throughout the twentieth century. This pamphlet outlines the development of local authority housing in Britain from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day, focusing on the ways in which policy changes have affected...
Local Authority Housing
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Case Study: Promoting creativity, empathy and historical imagination
Article
Empathy and Imagination
Creativity, imagination and historical empathy are concepts with different meanings although interrelated in the field of historical learning (Lee, 1984; Shemilt, 1984, Ashby & Lee, 1987). According to Lee (1984) concepts such as empathy, understanding and imagination are connected in complex ways in history. Lee discusses the...
Case Study: Promoting creativity, empathy and historical imagination
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Museums, schools and creativity: How learning can be enhanced
Article
What do we mean by creativity?In the last few years there has been an emphasis on the ‘creative curriculum', ‘creativity' and ‘creative teaching and learning', but there has not always been a shared understanding of what this means. This article uses the definition from ‘Creativity - find it, promote it'...
Museums, schools and creativity: How learning can be enhanced
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Polychronicon 149: Interpreting the Persian Wars
Teaching History feature
Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.
So begins Robert Graves' poem, The Persian Version. The conceit of the poem is to invert the standard narrative of the Persian war of the early fifth century BC - a narrative drawn from Greek sources such as...
Polychronicon 149: Interpreting the Persian Wars
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Evidenced based history teaching - teacher as researcher
Article
Introduction
Systematic, sustained provision of in-service courses has virtually disappeared. Increasingly, teachers' main source of professional development is the Internet. There is, however, a huge difference between reading about new approaches and skills and transforming that information, that understanding, into new ways of thinking, planning and teaching.
This is where...
Evidenced based history teaching - teacher as researcher
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Doing history in the early years and foundation stage
Article
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
Introducing the youngest children to the concept of history can be a challenging prospect for some foundation stage practitioners, particularly if they feel their experience of the subject has been limited or their own memories of...
Doing history in the early years and foundation stage
