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Teaching about the translatlantic slave trade and emancipation
Primary History article
Introduction – slavery, abolition and emancipation 25 March 2007 marked the bicentenary of the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. It is not compulsory to teach about the slave trade. However, the links to the National Curriculum – particularly in history, citizenship and geography – are clear. The...
Teaching about the translatlantic slave trade and emancipation
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Case Study: Creative exploration of local, national and global links 1650
Primary History article
Introduction: Linking two schools
Rather than looking to create connections with schools in distant places, two teachers from two schools located in different parts of the city of Bristol established a successful link which enabled children to appreciate the personal and local histories on each other's doorsteps. 7/8 year old [year...
Case Study: Creative exploration of local, national and global links 1650
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Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
Primary History feature
Please note: this piece was written before Sir Mo Farah’s 2022 disclosure that he was trafficked to the UK as a child, so some of its content is no longer accurate.
An assembly could focus on the achievements of their lives, experiences as child refugees and migrants, and how they overcame...
Ideas for Assemblies: Refugee stories
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Why stories?
Primary History article
Please note: this article was written before the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and references may no longer be relevant.
During the Early Years and Foundation Stage children should listen to stories, ask how and why and talk about the past (DfE 2012). Young children are comfortable with stories. Through...
Why stories?
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Exploring the story of elections and voting with your primary students
Primary History article
David Carr introduces us to some of the educational resources and opportunities linked to the Houses of Parliament. With the prospect of a general election, it provides some interesting background information as well as suggestions for engaging children with the democratic process...
Exploring the story of elections and voting with your primary students
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Working through drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Drama puts the fear of God into some teachers. Some, jolly sensible souls, just don't feel dramatic, fear wearing feathered hats and using funny voices; others know, deep in their hearts, that plays always lead to...
Working through drama
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Triumphs Show: A head, a hook and international theft: getting year 9 to debate the intricacies of the impact of empire
Teaching History feature
The draft of the revised Key Stage 3 programme of study for history brings a new prominence to the study of the British Empire. Here one department describes their triumph in enabling students to engage with a topic which could seem very distant from their own lives.
Triumphs Show: A head, a hook and international theft: getting year 9 to debate the intricacies of the impact of empire
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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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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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Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
There is a huge range of moving image material that provides, or purports to provide, direct documentary coverage of many historical events over the last 105 years. You can access much that is suitable for primary children from television and the video...
Refined, high-class and thrilling entertainment!
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Bringing the past to life!
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As an archaeologist who, after being a bit bored with history at school, discovered the excitement of the past through digging in dirt and finding things, I get frustrated by people not ‘getting' what archaeology...
Bringing the past to life!
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Using a Local Museum, Fulham Palace, the Hidden Jewel of West London
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
‘The 2,500 museums in the United Kingdom are a resource for public learning of exceptional educational, social, economic and spiritual value - a common wealth. This wealth is held in trust by museums for the...
Using a Local Museum, Fulham Palace, the Hidden Jewel of West London
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Case Study: Pictorial Recording
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The innovative use of visual images as communication mode and stimulus to writing is provided by Jan, a teacher on one of the Nuffield courses. Children, and adults, have trouble in making effective...
Case Study: Pictorial Recording
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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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What’s in your pocket, Peg?
Primary History article
What’s in your pocket, Peg? is a story book about Jersey which experienced German occupation throughout most of World War II. We wanted to create a book that appealed to children across different primary age groups, helping them to imagine the first-hand life experiences of a child alive at that time. The...
What’s in your pocket, Peg?
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Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Research during the last eighty years has suggested that ‘time’ concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my recent research would suggest that temporal concepts...
Enhancing temporal cognition: practical activities for the primary classroom
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Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
Primary History feature
Judith Kerr, author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and the Mog stories, came to Britain in 1936 with her brother Michael and their parents, Alfred and Julia Kerr. Her father was Jewish, an anti-Nazi, and famous theatre critic who fled Berlin as Hitler came to power in 1933,...
Ideas for Assemblies: The life stories of refugees - Judith Kerr
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Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial note: Below is a one-page outline of a wonderful briefing replete with visual and textual sources and teaching ideas from The Cambridge Schools Classics Project (CSC P). The outline below consists of the full introduction...
Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics - Teacher Briefing
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Case Study: Gifted Pupils design new children's museum galleries
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In this article I will describe a G&T museum-based project which we have just trialled with three primary schools in the Ashton Bedminster primary school cluster in Bristol. It was a joint initiative between Bristol’s...
Case Study: Gifted Pupils design new children's museum galleries
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'I could change the world if I put my mind to it!' Teaching Controversial Issues and Citizenship Through a Project on heroes and heroines
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Rye Oak School is in its second year of ‘Fresh Start’ status and there are many issues in the school, including poorly motivated children and behavioural problems. Many of the children in the school were...
'I could change the world if I put my mind to it!' Teaching Controversial Issues and Citizenship Through a Project on heroes and heroines
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Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
Primary History article
Often, primary schools and secondary schools are seen as separate entities. But why?
At primary, is it our responsibility to nurture our children and to encourage them only until they finish their primary education after the Year 6 SATs? Do we then just wave goodbye as they embark on their...
Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
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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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Thinking about questions to ask a sailor who knew Christopher Columbus
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The drama was an element in teaching a topic on Columbus with a class of 6-7 year old pupils. The Scheme of Work's title was WATER which lasted six weeks. The history element lasted...
Thinking about questions to ask a sailor who knew Christopher Columbus
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Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
Primary History article
The EYFS framework places a key emphasis on the value of giving children rich encounters with stories and picture books. With World Book Day just around the corner, this article suggests how a focus on children’s illustrators could be used to develop children’s understanding of ‘past and present’...
Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
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Earth heroes: Etta Lemon, ‘The Mother of Birds’
Primary History article
In this article Ailsa Fidler considers Etta Lemon and her role in halting the plume boom, which saw many bird species driven to the edge of extinction, all in the name of fashion. Linking a study of Etta to the government’s policy on Climate Education, the article shows how Etta’s...
Earth heroes: Etta Lemon, ‘The Mother of Birds’
