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Historical scholarship, archaeology and evidence in Year 7
Teaching History article
The stimulus for this article came from two developmental tasks that Barbara Trapani was set during the course of her initial teacher education programme: planning her first historical enquiry and bringing the work of an historian into the classroom. Trapani chose to tackle the two tasks together, using Susan Whitfield’s...
Historical scholarship, archaeology and evidence in Year 7
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How can I improve my use of ICT? Put history first!
Teaching History article
What is the difference between using lots of ICT and using it well? Dave Atkin draws upon work in his own department and with other Gloucestershire teachers in order to identify criteria for effective ICT use. These boil down to ‘putting history first' and getting maximum value out of the...
How can I improve my use of ICT? Put history first!
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A noisy classroom is a thinking classroom: speaking and listening in Year 7 history
Teaching History article
Rachael Rudham describes the thinking and discussion that led her department to plan systematically for the integration of speaking and listening tasks into Year 7 history lessons. Speaking and listening is a serious business; it is not a ‘light’ option, argues Rachael, and it should never be used as a...
A noisy classroom is a thinking classroom: speaking and listening in Year 7 history
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Cunning Plan 154: Who is buried in the box?
Teaching History feature
Question: Who is buried in the box?
Seeking a new and exciting way to introduce my Year 7 students to history, I looked to a practical solution. Ian Dawson once used a Thinking History exercise where students looked at the idea of ‘layers of history'. It was useful in structuring...
Cunning Plan 154: Who is buried in the box?
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Are we creating a generation of 'historical tourists'?
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
A trip to the battlefields of the First World War throws into stark relief the challenges presented by work on interpretations related to historical sites. Andrew Wrenn first drew attention to the difficulties of promoting...
Are we creating a generation of 'historical tourists'?
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Historical and interdisciplinary enquiry into the sinking of the Mary Rose
Teaching History article
The raising of Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, from the sea bed set in train an extraordinary programme of interdisciplinary research, relentlessly pursuing the clues to Tudor life and death provided by the remains of the ship, its cargo and crew. In this article Clare Barnes offers fascinating insights...
Historical and interdisciplinary enquiry into the sinking of the Mary Rose
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New alchemy or fatal attraction? History and citizenship
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The citizenship curriculum at both Key Stages 3 and 4 is currently being redefined and much has been said recently about the contribution that history could or should make to citizenship agendas and to the...
New alchemy or fatal attraction? History and citizenship
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Telling difficult stories about the creation of Bangladesh
Teaching History article
Nathanael Davies recognised that previous efforts to diversify the history taught at his school by weaving new stories into the curriculum had made little impression on his students’ assumptions about what really counted as history. Planning a new enquiry on the creation of Bangladesh was intended both to bridge a...
Telling difficult stories about the creation of Bangladesh
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Polychronicon 134: The Great War and Cultural History
Teaching History feature
Over the past two decades the historiography of the Great War has witnessed something of a revolution. Although historical revisionism is, of course, nothing out of the ordinary, the speed with which long-held assumptions about the First World War and its impact have been swept away has been quite astonishing....
Polychronicon 134: The Great War and Cultural History
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Teaching History 134: Local Voices
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial
03 HA Secondary News
04 Relevant, rigorous and revisited: using local history to make meaning of historical significance – Geraint Brown and James Woodcock (Read article)
12 Cunning Plan: Local history at KS3 – Dan Moorhouse (Read article)
15 Nutshell
16 Riots, railways and a Hampshire hill fort: exploiting local...
Teaching History 134: Local Voices
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Is any explanation better than none?
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What do we know about progression in historical understanding? In Teaching History 113, Lee and Shemilt discussed what progression models can and cannot do to help us think about measuring and developing pupils' understanding and...
Is any explanation better than none?
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"...someone might become involved in a fascist group or something...": pupils' perceptions of history at the end of Key Stages 2, 3 and 4
Teaching History article
In contrast with earlier studies which presented a bleak picture of the impact of history teaching, Paul Goalen presents a small-scale study that is optimistic. For pupils in three schools at least, the history teaching of the late 1990s seems to be winning through. Goalen argues that the National Curriculum...
"...someone might become involved in a fascist group or something...": pupils' perceptions of history at the end of Key Stages 2, 3 and 4
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HA Survey of English Secondary Schools
Survey
History Faces Extinction in English Schools
Pupils are receiving fewer and fewer hours of history teaching across secondary schools in England according to research by the Historical Association. The specially commissioned report discovered that:
Many children receive little or no history education after only two years of secondary school
48%...
HA Survey of English Secondary Schools
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On-demand webinar: Histories of the African continent
Webinar series: Decolonising the secondary history curriculum
Webinar series: Decolonising the secondary history curriculum
Session 4: Histories of the African continent
This 90-minute recorded webinar will cover three elements: an introductory discussion about the scope and opportunities for exploring African history; Enquiry One: Africa and the development of religion; Enquiry Two: Decolonisation, Ideology and Race in Africa: the struggles...
On-demand webinar: Histories of the African continent
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Family stories and global (hi)stories
Teaching History article
Teaching in Greece, a country with extensive recent experience of immigration, Maria Vlachaki and Georgia Kouseri were interested to examine how they might use family history as a means of exploring the historical dimensions of this potentially sensitive topic. They hoped that encouraging pupils to explore their relatives’ stories would...
Family stories and global (hi)stories
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Equiano - voice of silent slaves?
Teaching History article
Andrew Wrenn shows how a study of the life of Olaudah Equiano can support pupils’ historical learning in a number of ways. Not only is this a ‘little story’ that can help to illuminate or raise questions about the the ‘big picture’, it can also help pupils to reflect upon...
Equiano - voice of silent slaves?
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It's like they've gone up a year!' Gauging the impact of a history transition unit on teachers of primary and secondary
Teaching History article
Year 7 history teachers frequently bemoan the lack of historical learning in the primary sector. Pupils may be well versed in suffixes and similes, but their study of history can be limited. This group of history teachers decided that things could be different. Not only did they bring enquiry methods...
It's like they've gone up a year!' Gauging the impact of a history transition unit on teachers of primary and secondary
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Historical Causation: Is One Thing More Important Than Another?
Branch Lecture Podcast
WHAT COLOUR ARE THE UNICORNS?Professor Steve Rigby, recently retired from the University of Manchester, delivered ‘Historical Causation: Is One Thing More Important Than Another?' to the Bolton Branch of the Historical Association on 29th November 2010. His lecture gives a fascinating introduction to the philosophy of historical causation, looking at...
Historical Causation: Is One Thing More Important Than Another?
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Maybe they haven't decided yet what is right: English and Spanish perspectives on teaching historical significance
Teaching History article
Historians and history teachers understand well that students, when they ‘answer’ questions, are creating their own interpretation. We take account of this in our teaching too: we do not pretend that, beyond the level of the simplest closed questioning, there is ever a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer approach to history....
Maybe they haven't decided yet what is right: English and Spanish perspectives on teaching historical significance
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How to make historical simulations adaptable, engaging and manageable
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Dan Moorhouse suggests that history teachers are sometimes put off role-play or simulations because the amount of preparation - intellectual and practical - appears both time-consuming and expensive. He argues that effective simulations need be...
How to make historical simulations adaptable, engaging and manageable
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Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Secondary prizes)
History competition for students
The 2026 competition is now open. Entries close on 17 July 2026 (3 July for overseas entries).
Researching, writing and presenting ideas about a historical theme or period is one of the best parts about studying history. We want young school and college aged students to get the bug for...
Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Secondary prizes)
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Right up my street: the knowledge needed to plan a local history enquiry
Journal article
Inspired by the claim that local history can be taught effectively ‘Any time, any place, anywhere’, Katharine Burn and Jason Todd took up the challenge of planning Key Stage 3 enquiries related to an unusual and diverse, but frequently neglected and often despised, corner of Oxford. They sought not merely...
Right up my street: the knowledge needed to plan a local history enquiry
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Roman Britain
Classic Pamphlet
This classic pamphlet provides an introduction to Roman Britain, examines the political history, the institutions of Roman Britain, the economic background and the end of Roman Britain. IntroductionThe Roman conquest and occupation of Britain has long been taken as the conventional starting point of English History, and there is a conventional...
Roman Britain
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Building and assessing historical knowledge on three scales
Teaching History article
The knowledge that ‘flavours' a claim: towards building and assessing historical knowledge on three scales
While marking some Year 11 essays, Kate Hammond found her interest caught by significant differences between one kind of strong analysis and another. Some scored high marks but were less convincing. The achievement in these...
Building and assessing historical knowledge on three scales
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Evidence: Theoretical
Links to HA resources for secondary teachers
Getting Year 10 beyond trivial judgements of ‘bias': towards victory in that battle ...
Let's play Supermarket ‘Evidential' Sweep: developing students' awareness of the need to select evidence
Assessment of students' uses of evidence: shifting the focus from processes to historical reasoning
How can students' use of historical evidence be...
Evidence: Theoretical
