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History teacher subject knowledge reading list
One Big History Department blog post
Subject knowledge updating is enjoyable and a huge challenge in a busy teacher's life.
There are fantastic initiatives which make this process more collegiate. And some historians are incredibly generous with their time and engage with history teachers on social media and at conferences. Nevertheless, there can’t be many of us who...
History teacher subject knowledge reading list
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Membership Administrator Job Opportunity
Join the HA team
An exciting opportunity has recently arisen for a Membership Administrator to join the HA team to provide a strong level of support with day-to-day processing and the delivery of a first-class membership service.
The Historical Association (HA) is a membership charity which brings together people who share an interest in the past, and...
Membership Administrator Job Opportunity
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Young Quills Awards 2019 – the winners
16th July 2019
Announcing this year’s winners of the HA's Young Quills Historical Fiction Competition for children and young adults:
6–10 years category: Janina Ramirez for Riddle of the Runes (Oxford University Press)
11–13 years category: Pippa Goodhart for The Great Sea Dragon Discovery (Catnip Publishers)
14 years and above category: Elizabeth Wein...
Young Quills Awards 2019 – the winners
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Cunning Plan 177: teaching about life in Elizabethan England by looking at death
Teaching History feature
‘We already did the Tudors in primary school’ was the most frequent comment made by students about our Year 7 scheme of learning in our annual review. Students reported covering the Tudors at least once, sometimes twice, before reaching secondary school and they had clearly not faced extensive further study...
Cunning Plan 177: teaching about life in Elizabethan England by looking at death
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Film: Tackling superpower relations with lower-ability students
Secondary History Workshop Annual Conference 2019
This secondary workshop took place at at the Historical Association Annual Conference, Chester, May 2019.
It looked at ways of helping lower-ability students at GCSE access lesson and revision content based around superpower relations in the cold war, but is applicable to any subject area. Through a series of games and...
Film: Tackling superpower relations with lower-ability students
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Webinar series: Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
HA webinar series for secondary history teachers and leaders
This series of webinars will consider how disciplinary thinking has perhaps become something of an afterthought in curriculum planning, for a range of valid reasons, and start to explore ways to build it back in. It will encourage colleagues to hold up a mirror to how they approach what is...
Webinar series: Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
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Short course: Witchcraft, Werewolves and Magic in European History
HA short course, 10 September–10 December 2024
Led by Jonathan Durrant, Laura Kounine, Jan Machielsen, Lisa Tallis, Juliette Wood
Book Now
(Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window. Please read the course terms and conditions before registering)
What does the course cover?
This Historical Association short course is an introduction to European witchcraft...
Short course: Witchcraft, Werewolves and Magic in European History
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Film: Interpretations at GCSE
Film: Secondary History Workshop Annual Conference 2019
This secondary workshop took place at at the Historical Association Annual Conference, Chester, May 2019.
To teach successfully at GCSE, should you focus your work on practice exam questions? Is boosting grades about re-writing mark-schemes in pupil-friendly language and showing model answers? Success at GCSE involves teaching interpretations properly, not just...
Film: Interpretations at GCSE
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Young Quills shortlist 2024
HA annual awards for best historical fiction for young people
It is here! We are delighted to announce the shortlist for 2024 Young Quills Awards for Historical Fiction. You can read reviews of all this year's entries here.
For readers aged 5-8 years
Title
Author
Publisher
Moving the Millers' Minnie Moore Mine Mansion
Dave Eggers (illus Júlia Sardà)
Walker
The Most Famous Rhinoceros...
Young Quills shortlist 2024
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Brazil and the two World Wars
Article
Brazil and the outbreak of the First World War At the beginning of the twentieth century Brazil was on the periphery of a world order that revolved around decisions made by the great European powers. Although it was the largest and most populated nation in South America, Brazil possessed an...
Brazil and the two World Wars
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Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime: using external support, local history and a group project to challenge the most able
Teaching History article
The most able can be challenged in a variety of ways and at a number of levels, from the extension question for the individual child to the extended enquiry for the most able class. In a Leading Edge History project, Guy Woolnough and his colleagues took the concept of challenge...
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime: using external support, local history and a group project to challenge the most able
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Questions to help you review your KS3 curriculum
Guidance for history teachers
This resource is free to everyone. For access to our library of high-quality secondary history materials along with free or discounted CPD and membership of a thriving community of history teachers and subject leaders, join the Historical Association today
With Ofsted incorporating curriculum into inspections from September 2019 and finally...
Questions to help you review your KS3 curriculum
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Telling and suggesting in the Conwy Valley
Teaching History article
Thelma Wiltshire applies a ‘telling' and ‘suggesting' strategy to an enquiry involving an historical site. Getting beyond more simplistic approaches to ‘fact' and ‘opinion', she describes how a pack of curriculum materials was designed to give pupils a precise language to talk about layers of certainty and uncertainty in their...
Telling and suggesting in the Conwy Valley
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Secondary Committee biographies
Information
Find out more about the HA's committees here
Sally Burnham (committee chair)
Sally is a history teacher in a school in Lincolnshire and also works one day a week at the University of Nottingham on the History PGCE. Sally has been a Head of Department and is now a Lead...
Secondary Committee biographies
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‘Its ultimate pattern was greater than its parts’
Teaching History journal article
Identifying the challenges his students faced both with recall and analysis of the content they had learned for their GCSE course, Ed Durbin devised a solution which focused not on exam skills and revision lessons, but on using Key Stage 3 to build the ‘hinterland’ of contextual knowledge and causal...
‘Its ultimate pattern was greater than its parts’
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Daniel Defoe, public opinion and the Anglo-Scottish Union
Historian article
There is a tendency to represent Daniel Defoe as a novelist and satirical journalist who was at one point placed in the London stocks as a punishment. Ted Vallance's article broadens our perspective to appreciate Defoe's activities as a propagandist in both England and Scotland...
The September 2014 referendum on...
Daniel Defoe, public opinion and the Anglo-Scottish Union
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History-specific support – for every career stage
Information
Register for the HA's SLT newsletter for more
Our biannual SLT newsletter will give you up-to-date information and support on managing history including updates on current issues, priorities and policy issues. Register here
Subject-specific support is an essential investment in your teaching staff, equipping them with the knowledge and...
History-specific support – for every career stage
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Write Your Own Historical Fiction Competition 2024
The Historical Association Historical Fiction Prize
Entries to the 2024 competition are now closed.
Each year we are so impressed by the ever increasing number and standard of entries we receive around such a wide range of historical periods and settings. You can take a look at some of last year’s winning entries here.
Unleash the creativity...
Write Your Own Historical Fiction Competition 2024
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The International Journal Volume 12, Number 1
Journal
Editorial
Sweden
Ethical Values and History: a mutual relationship?
Niklas Ammert, Linnaeus University (Kalmar)
Australia
Teaching History Using Feature Films: practitioner acuity and cognitive neuroscientific validation
Debra Donnelly, University of Newcastle
Greece
The Difficult Relationship Between the History of the Present and School History in Greece: cinema as...
The International Journal Volume 12, Number 1
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Evidential understanding, period knowledge and the development of literacy: a practical approach to 'layers of inference' for Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Claire Riley explains how she developed and improved the ‘layers of inference' diagram-already a popular device since Hilary Cooper's work-as a way of getting pupils fascinated by challenging texts and pictures. Working with the whole ability range in Year 9 she analyses her successes and failures, offering many practical suggestions...
Evidential understanding, period knowledge and the development of literacy: a practical approach to 'layers of inference' for Key Stage 3
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Corporate secondary membership: a view from SLT
By Simon Harrison, Headteacher
From history teacher to Headteacher, in over 25 years of teaching I have filled most school roles; history teacher, in the ‘middle’ as a subject leader, an Advanced Skills Teacher, senior leader and eventually Headteacher. I have learned a lot about leadership in Secondary Schools along the way, and becoming...
Corporate secondary membership: a view from SLT
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Social Studies Teachers’ Resistance to Teaching Francophone Perspectives in Alberta
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 15, Number 1 – Autumn/Winter 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
It is increasingly common for social studies programs to call for the teaching of multiple perspectives on past and current issues. Within the Canadian context, the province of Alberta’s social studies program mandates...
Social Studies Teachers’ Resistance to Teaching Francophone Perspectives in Alberta
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Academic Critical Thinking, Research Literacy and Undergraduate History
Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 15, Number 1 – Autumn/Winter 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
The concept of critical thinking is pivotal in academia. Many see it as the very core of intellectual thought and the primary learning outcome of higher education. In addition to its universal merits,...
Academic Critical Thinking, Research Literacy and Undergraduate History
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‘It’s More Complex Than I Assumed’
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 15, Number 1 – Autumn/Winter 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
As with many nations, the teaching of history in Australian schools is often contested. Two prevailing standpoints can be identified, the first of which, in broad terms, emphasises the acquisition of historical knowledge....
‘It’s More Complex Than I Assumed’
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HA Blog Watch
Selected history education blogs
We've collated some of the best history education blogs here. The list isn't exhaustive so if there is a great history education blog out there that is not on this list – let us know!
One Big History Department
HA Secondary Committee blog
One Big History Department (OBHD) has been...
HA Blog Watch
