-
Move Me On 182: thinks that substantive knowledge is all that matters
Teaching History feature
Lina Power has interpreted an emphasis on knowledge organisers and factual knowledge tests to mean that substantive knowledge is all that matters.
Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It is also designed to offer practical...
Move Me On 182: thinks that substantive knowledge is all that matters
-
Planning a more diverse and coherent Year 7 curriculum
Teaching History article
In this article, Jacob Olivey describes his department’s efforts to both diversify their Key Stage 3 curriculum and secure greater curricular coherence. Building on a large body of research and practice, Olivey sought new forms of curricular coherence through the selection and sequencing of substantive content across the curriculum. He...
Planning a more diverse and coherent Year 7 curriculum
-
Thomas Muir and the 'Scottish Martyrs' of the 1790s
Article
From the 1750s, after more than a century of intense political and religious disputes and of economic stagnation, Scotland began to enjoy several decades of almost unprecedented political stability, religious harmony, economic growth and cultural achievements. Jacobitism had been crushed and most propertied and influential Scots rallied to the Hanoverian...
Thomas Muir and the 'Scottish Martyrs' of the 1790s
-
Where do I begin?
Article
Planning a new Key Stage 3 Curriculum: A Powerpoint presentation from the Regional Subject CfBT/HA Conferences 3 Curriculum aims are: successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society...
Where do I begin?
-
Teaching Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history
Article
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people are the largest minority ethnic group in some communities (and therefore in some schools) in the UK. Yet the past of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller people may rarely be part of history lessons. The result is that pupils of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage may not...
Teaching Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history
-
Using individuals’ stories to help GCSE students to explain change and causation
Article
Should we, and how do we, develop in our students a sense of period – or a series of senses of period – in a thematic study spanning a thousand years? This was the problem faced by Matthew Fearns-Davies in preparing for the GCSE ‘Health and the People’ paper. He shows...
Using individuals’ stories to help GCSE students to explain change and causation
-
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... medieval science and medicine?
Teaching History feature
The phrase ‘medieval science’ may seem nonsensical. ‘How can... a synonym for “backward”,’ the editors of The Cambridge History of Science Volume 2 ask rhetorically, ‘modify a noun that signifies the best available knowledge from the natural world?’ To answer their question, we must rethink our assumptions, both about the...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... medieval science and medicine?
-
From The Holocaust To Recent Mass Murders And Refugees
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 14, Number 2 – Spring/Summer 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
Through studying cases of genocide and mass atrocities, students can come to realize that: democratic institutions and values are not automatically sustained but need to be appreciated, nurtured, and protected; silence and indifference to the...
From The Holocaust To Recent Mass Murders And Refugees
-
Delve deeper with The Historian magazine
The perfect support material for teachers and students
The Historian magazine offers the perfect support material for teachers. It’s an opportunity to learn more about those bits of history you may need a greater knowledge of for teaching, just have an interest in or to support your A-level and GCSE students with their studies. It’s also an ideal...
Delve deeper with The Historian magazine
-
Webinar series: Making history accessible
On-demand webinar series for subject leaders and teachers of history
What does this series cover and why should I attend?
In recent years, the UK’s SEND system has been under the spotlight. As numbers of students with identified special educational needs increase, attention has been given to how to best embed inclusive practice, enabling teachers to support all students to...
Webinar series: Making history accessible
-
Cunning Plan 181: Incorporating a more global perspective within Key Stage 3
Teaching History feature
While lockdown, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, brought a period of turbulence to the education sector, it also brought a wealth of generosity, with a vast range of free online CPD offered by different providers. One in particular was the webinar series ‘West African History before the 1600s’ hosted...
Cunning Plan 181: Incorporating a more global perspective within Key Stage 3
-
An Investigation into Finding Effective Ways of Presenting a Written Source to Students
IJHLTR Article
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research [IJHLTR], Volume 15, Number 1 – Autumn/Winter 2017ISSN: 14472-9474
Abstract
Written historical sources can be quite challenging for students to analyse in secondary school. They are sometimes long and tedious to read as well as containing difficult and awkward text. The presentation of...
An Investigation into Finding Effective Ways of Presenting a Written Source to Students
-
HA Secondary History Survey 2024
24th June 2025
For the last 15 years the Historical Association has carried out an annual or biennial survey of history teaching in Secondary Schools. The survey data now provides us with an up-to-date insight into the successes, pressures and concerns in schools affecting history and how those factors have developed, changed or...
HA Secondary History Survey 2024
-
Young Quills shortlist for 2025
The HA's annual awards for best historical fiction for young people
Each year, the Historical Association runs ‘Young Quills’, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2024 for this year’s selection.
Our aim...
Young Quills shortlist for 2025
-
Webinar series: Making GCSE history accessible: supporting all learners at Key Stage 4
HA webinar series for history teachers, leaders and SENDCos
What does this series cover and why should I attend?
In recent years, the UK’s SEND system has been under the spotlight. As numbers of students with identified special educational needs increase, attention has been given to how to best embed inclusive practice, enabling teachers to support all students to...
Webinar series: Making GCSE history accessible: supporting all learners at Key Stage 4
-
No more ‘doing’ diversity
Teaching History feature
Catherine Priggs and her history department colleagues were increasingly concerned that their curriculum was too narrow. They feared that major areas of history were being left out and that many of their own pupils were not seeing themselves, in their various ethnic, cultural and world identities, in the past. Priggs...
No more ‘doing’ diversity
-
The great Liberal landslide: the 1906 General Election in perspective
Historian article
On 1 May 1997 the Conservative party suffered an electoral defeat so overwhelming that political commentators were left rummaging through the statistics of the previous two centuries to find anything similar. The Times concluded on 3 May that it was the party's worst performance since 1832, though 'The disaster suffered...
The great Liberal landslide: the 1906 General Election in perspective
-
On-demand webinar series: Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
On-demand webinar series for secondary history teachers and leaders
What does this series cover?
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...
On-demand webinar series: Embracing messiness: teaching disciplinary thinking in history
-
Webinar series: Coherence at Key Stage 4
HA webinar series for subject leaders and teachers of history
What does this series cover?
This series of webinars will consider coherence at Key Stage 4. We will reflect on using sequencing to establish coherence, how different categories of coherence can be used to inform our planning and delivery of GCSE, and how meaningful approaches to assessment will allow pupils’...
Webinar series: Coherence at Key Stage 4
-
Key Principles for teaching Thematic Studies at GCSE
GCSE Guidance
For many teachers the thematic study is the most new and most troubling unit of the new GCSE specifications. By following this link, you will be connected to an article that appears on www.thinkinghistory.co.uk. This free website for teachers is maintained by Ian Dawson. In this article Ian works with...
Key Principles for teaching Thematic Studies at GCSE
-
History Teacher Development Programme (HTDP)
Immersive online course for history teachers looking to develop beyond their early career
Book now
Autumn 2025 cohort
- Welcome meeting: Thursday 16 October, 4.45pm–5.45pm- Second meeting: Thursday 15 January, 4.45pm–5.45pm- Assessment meeting: Thursday 26 February, 4.45pm–5.45pm
What is the History Teacher Development Programme?
The History Teacher Development Programme is an immersive online programme aimed at history teachers who want to re-focus their...
History Teacher Development Programme (HTDP)
-
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
-
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
-
Subject Leader Development Programme (SLDP)
News Item
Book now
Autumn 2025 Cohort
- Welcome meeting: Thursday 18 September, 4pm-5pm- Second meeting: Thursday 6 November, 4pm-5pm- Assessment meeting: Thursday 11 December, 4pm-5pm
Spring 2026 Cohort
- To be announced
Summer 2026 Cohort
- To be announced
If you have any questions please email Olivia at events@history.org.uk
What is...
Subject Leader Development Programme (SLDP)
-
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)
