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Is There a Place for The Holocaust in the Primary Curriculum?
Article
The Holocaust – the murder of approximately six million Jewish men, women and children by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during the Second World War – is possibly the most difficult event that any history teacher will ever have to teach. Most obviously, it can be deeply upsetting, for educators...
Is There a Place for The Holocaust in the Primary Curriculum?
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Storytelling the past
Primary History article
This article will demonstrate how to engage children through storytelling and how it can be used to develop their critical understanding of the past.
Why story?
Despite their common derivation, the words ‘history’ and ‘story’ suggest very different kinds of knowledge, the former carrying overtones of detached understanding of the...
Storytelling the past
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Primary History 70
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Editorial
05 HA Primary News
06 Learning in the Early Years through Local People and Places: developing historical concepts in the Early Years Foundation Stage - Alison Hales (Read article)
08 Enquiry: developing puzzling, enjoyable, effective historical investigations - Ian Dawson (Read article)
15 Key Stage 1 local history...
Primary History 70
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Primary History 69 - Editorial
Article
When was the last time there was no war anywhere on Earth?
Estimates are that there have been 230 years of peace during the last 3,500 years. Of war fatalities over the past 500 years, it is estimated that three quarters occurred during the twentieth century - including roughly 16...
Primary History 69 - Editorial
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Primary History summer resource 2024: the Ancient Greeks
Primary member resource
Our free summer resource for 2024 is intended to enhance your subject knowledge about Ancient Greece.
The first article looks at an individual Greek, Pytheas. Often Greece is taught largely as an insular place of city states, but the reality is that Greece was heavily involved in trade and they...
Primary History summer resource 2024: the Ancient Greeks
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Assessment in Primary History - Guidance
Assessment in Primary History
Whilst a number of schools have had well-considered assessment procedures for primary history, these represented a minority. With the new national curriculum, the old level descriptions have been replaced by a single sentence attainment target which states that "by the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know,...
Assessment in Primary History - Guidance
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Using some more unusual sources in the primary classroom
Primary History article
In this article Tim Lomas illustrates how it is valid and creative to go beyond some of the most popular sources used by primary history teachers. He looks at a number of historical enquiries and questions that might be considered as a theme and some sources that might be used....
Using some more unusual sources in the primary classroom
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 95
Deaf Londoners in the 1660s
Everywhere you look in history you can find deaf people and sign languages.
Pull-out posters: Primary History 95
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Primary History summer resource 2023: Early civilisations
Primary member resource
Our free summer resource for 2023 is intended to enhance your subject knowledge about ancient civilisations. We have selected two articles from the HA journal The Historian that provide you with an insight into current historical knowledge.
The first article includes Sumer, Indus, Shang and Egypt, early civilisations that are identified in...
Primary History summer resource 2023: Early civilisations
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 94
One aspect of teaching Benin that can never be ignored – the incredible bronzes
Posters 1 and 2: The incredible Benin bronzes
Pull-out posters: Primary History 94
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
Coronations
Poster 1: What continuities and change can you see in coronations from the distant to recent past?
Poster 2: Some objects used or presented at a coronation
Pull-out posters: Primary History 93
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What confuses primary children in history...
... and what can we do about it?
Young children who automatically see shiny things as new no matter what their age, those who mix up technology from one age with another, those who dismiss people in the past as stupid because they did not have the possessions we have today, those who equate the age of a...
What confuses primary children in history...
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Assessment and feedback in history
Primary History article
Every year schools need to produce a statutory annual report for parents and carers, setting out ‘brief particulars of achievements in all subjects and activities forming part of the school curriculum’. This should include the strengths and developmental needs of each child. In a subject such as history, how do...
Assessment and feedback in history
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The 2014 History National Curriculum: how to get the best from heritage
Primary History article
We all know that site visits are good for children - not least because they give a break from the normal school routine - and there are a plethora of heritage sites both local and national that are able to offer facilities for school visits. But we also know that...
The 2014 History National Curriculum: how to get the best from heritage
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Urban spaces: inner-city Leeds
Lesson Resources
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This is an account of a series of six lessons focusing on a local urban square. Teachers can adapt this to suit their own circumstances. The teaching took place in an inner-city Leeds primary school, with pupils from 48 different...
Urban spaces: inner-city Leeds
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 90
Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II; Queen and Commonwealth
Timeline of Queen Elizabeth II
Queen and Commonwealth
Pull-out posters: Primary History 90
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 89
Vikings in 'these islands'; Ancient Greece
Where did the Vikings go to in ‘these islands’?
Ancient Greece – Did you know…?
Pull-out posters: Primary History 89
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 88 – Diversity
Diversity in Primary History
There has been much emphasis on ensuring that we teach a balanced history curriculum that reflects diversity. Teachers often ask the Historical Association where they can get their ideas and find examples of good practice. From the start, this journal has addressed the many strands of a diverse primary history...
Pull-out posters: Primary History 88 – Diversity
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The Vikings - Primary E-CPD
Primary e-CPD unit
The purpose of this unit is to provide for teachers' subject knowledge on the Vikings. This reflects a need for up-to-date and scholarly historical knowledge, but this also demonstrates that it is essential to see the Vikings as having diversified experiences and impacts over time in a variety of geographical contexts...
The Vikings - Primary E-CPD
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 87
Could you manage old money? and Examples of picture books
‘Twelve pennies make a shilling; twenty shillings make a pound’ - Could you manage old money?
Examples of picture books
Pull-out posters: Primary History 87
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Global Learning Project - Hawkshead Primary
GLP Case Study
Hawkeshead Primary School in the Lake District is a small village school, with a teaching head. Yet they have gone to great pains to integrate the ideals of Global Learning into their curriculum. They are an Expert Centre, leading a team of 20 local schools - primary and secondary -...
Global Learning Project - Hawkshead Primary
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 86
Re-imagining statues: how should we do this? and Historical fiction prizes: Summer 2020
Re-imagining statues: how should we do this?
Historical fiction prizes: Summer 202
Pull-out posters: Primary History 86
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Towards inclusion: A study of significant figures and disability within the national curriculum
Primary History article
Since the early days of the National Curriculum, considerable progress has been made to introduce children to an inclusive view of history. The research of the late Hilary Claire (1996) served as a major impetus and now primary teachers strive to ensure that no groups or individuals are marginalised, particularly...
Towards inclusion: A study of significant figures and disability within the national curriculum
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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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Detectives: what were schools like in the past?
Lesson Plan
In this lesson we asked what clues (objects and pictures) can tell us about the past. How were schools in the past different from ours? (Resources attached below.)
The objectives were:
To introduce the children to the idea of history as detective work.
To help the children to make comparisons...
Detectives: what were schools like in the past?
