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Putting the Story back into History
Primary History article
Children love stories. They like the drama, the excitement, the chance to listen and to wonder. Narrative is a very important part of history and sometimes, by concentrating on facts or on skills, we tend to lose the view of the big picture, especially in the Key Stage 2 curriculum...
Putting the Story back into History
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How should we remember Rosa Parks?
Primary History Article
Rosa Parks died in October 2005, aged 92. It's a life story which resonates with any age group. In a recent visit to a nursery, I saw 4 year olds who had lined up the chairs to make a bus, playing out Rosa's refusal to move from her seat. She...
How should we remember Rosa Parks?
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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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Hollywood vs. Homer
Primary History article
You don't need a degree in film studies or Classics to enjoy the Hollywood blockbuster: Troy. Or to enjoy Brad Pitt, for that matter! But the question my teacher friend asked me, after two hours and forty minutes of being with Brad in a warm, dark place, was a great...
Hollywood vs. Homer
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Planning a Victorian School Day
Primary History article
Learning is more engaging and better retained when it is contextualised and when it appeals to a variety of learning styles. How better to bring history alive, than by having it invade children's school environment and transform their everyday experience? Getting away from predominantly auditory learning, the printed word and...
Planning a Victorian School Day
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content, references and links may be outdated. For more recent content see our Brunel scheme of work and George Stephenson scheme of work.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) have recently published new Schemes of Work for all subjects. Included within these...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
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In My View: Migration - the search for a better life
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Migration is not new. The movement of people has been part of defining cultures throughout history. Asylum seekers could be seen as the thin (contemporary) end of this historical wedge. But is the...
In My View: Migration - the search for a better life
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A Project on Working Class Education in the Victorian Period
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In the third year at London Metropolitan University, history B.ED students research and prepare a resource about an aspect of life in C19th Britain for use with their chosen age group. Nicky made a book,...
A Project on Working Class Education in the Victorian Period
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Stories and National Identity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
If you were asked to select just one story which you thought all children should know about British history, what would it be? Would it be Guy Fawkes or Florence Nightingale? The battle of Hastings...
Stories and National Identity
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Teaching The Indus Valley Civilisation in the 21st Century
Primary History article
This article discusses how mathematical concepts, literacy requirements and other areas of the curriculum can be harnessed to promote meaningful historical enquiry and understanding. This is especially so for a history topic which lends itself to enquiry based learning, scrutiny of every little clue, and speculation about the very many...
Teaching The Indus Valley Civilisation in the 21st Century
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Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Knowledge of the experience of women during Victorian times has developed considerably during the last thirty years. History had a privileged place within the British Women’s Liberation movement in the early 1970s and reclaiming the...
Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
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Britain and the wider world in Tudor times
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The first two articles in this series introduced three generic principles which might underpin planning a scheme of work in the KS2 History Curriculum. Article 1 (Jan 2001) drew on contemporary history to analyse and explain the principles. Article 2 (May 2001)...
Britain and the wider world in Tudor times
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Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
When Prince Albert died in 1861 Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and ceased all public duties. By 1866 she had still not made any public appearances. Wolverhampton, like many other towns, raised a subscription to commission a statue in Albert’s memory....
Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
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The Plague in Cumberland 1597-1598. Some documents used in the Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle) by Key Stage 2 pupils studying the Tudors
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Outbreaks of the plague were common in the 16th century and the north of England was badly affected in the 1590s. It is believed that the plague arrived in Cumberland from Newcastle about Michaelmas 1597 and continued for over a year. The...
The Plague in Cumberland 1597-1598. Some documents used in the Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle) by Key Stage 2 pupils studying the Tudors
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Rhyd-y-Car cottages at St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The miner’s cottage is part of a project at The Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans, to preserve folk history. Since its founding in 1948, over 40 buildings, including a row of six original miners’ cottages from Rhyd-y-Car, have been dismantled and...
Rhyd-y-Car cottages at St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life
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The coming of the railways - Fire-breathing monster or benefit to mankind?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Today children regard trains as just another not very exciting means of travel, but to many early Victorian people the thought of riding on a train was as alarming and exciting as the idea of space travel is today. To be whisked...
The coming of the railways - Fire-breathing monster or benefit to mankind?
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Oral history in primary schools
Article
Although this article focuses on a distinctive and effective historical activity it is important from the outset to recognise that involvement in oral history also has the potential to enhance learning across the ‘formal curriculum’ and beyond. Talking to older people about their lived experience and recording their memories provides...
Oral history in primary schools
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Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The study of life in Victorian Times with Key Stage 2 pupils, or aspects of life beyond living memory (now ‘the more distant past’) with children in Key Stage 1 is surely one of the richest and most popular historical themes. Some...
Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
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A treasure trove of local history - how to use your local record office
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
In her article in Primary History No 21, Jayne Woodhouse highlighted that the study of history needn’t be all about national events. Essentially it is a series of stories, often about ordinary people and their ordinary lives, which can be built up...
A treasure trove of local history - how to use your local record office
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Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
Teaching History article
In this article Nicolas Kinloch examines aspects of an indigenous empire: that of Aztec Mexico. He attempts to persuade a group of mixed-ability Year 8 students to examine - and question - some of the assumptions they bring to the study of this empire. Their attitudes reflect quite widespread beliefs...
Confounding expectation at Key Stage 3: flower-songs from an indigenous empire
