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My favourite monument: The Acropolis, Athens, Greece
Primary History feature
About 3,200 years old, the Acropolis of Athens supports the most stunning and complete collection of ancient Greek structures that still exist. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987, it remains a mostly intact classical collection that fascinates those who study and visit it. I have always been intrigued...
My favourite monument: The Acropolis, Athens, Greece
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Primary history in the 21st century: Back to the past?
Primary History article
During my teaching of history I have been amazed by the asinine questions that children and adults ask about the subject matter. For example, a child once asked, ‘Sir, if Queen Cleopatra hadn't been bitten by the asp would she still be alive today?'. This question suggests that despite comprehensive...
Primary history in the 21st century: Back to the past?
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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Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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 ninety years has suggested that ‘time' concepts, such as chronology, duration and the usage of dating systems are difficult for children to assimilate. However, my research suggests that temporal concepts can be...
Enhancing temporal cognition: Practical activities for the primary classroom
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Using cemeteries as a local history resource
Primary History article
Why visit a cemetery as part of the history curriculum? Local studies now feature prominently in the primary history curriculum for both key stages. This development challenges teachers to find easilyaccessible, inexpensive and relevant resources on their doorstep. A rich resource which has traditionally been overlooked is the local churchyard...
Using cemeteries as a local history resource
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Drama and story telling
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Everyone loves a story - especially a story well told. To encourage learning all primary teachers should consider the creative art of telling a story, as well as developing a variety of ways of interacting through...
Drama and story telling
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Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
Primary History article
The recent survey of history teaching in primary schools conducted by the Historical Association revealed that the majority of respondents felt that they were short of resources to teach the revised National Curriculum. Not surprisingly most schools look to find resources that do the job cheaply. It is a truism...
Resourcing primary history: How to avoid going for any old thing
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Two women linked across three thousand years of history
Primary History article
16 May 1976 – a warm sunny day as Zheng was to recall – began as a typical day on site and ended with a remarkable discovery. Zheng Zhenxiang was leading an archaeological team at Yinxu, Anyang in China looking for evidence of tombs from the Shang Dynasty period. This...
Two women linked across three thousand years of history
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Using classic fiction to support the study of childhood in Victorian times
Primary History article
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
Classic fiction provides useful sources of information for investigating the lives, beliefs and values of people in the past. In this article Ann Cowling describes activities undertaken with student teachers which may also serve as models...
Using classic fiction to support the study of childhood in Victorian times
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Oral history - a source of evidence for the primary classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
To help children develop a more rounded awareness of historical understanding, they should have the opportunity to examine different types of evidence. The National Curriculum states that, "children should recognise that the past is represented and interpreted...
Oral history - a source of evidence for the primary classroom
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History, artefacts and storytelling in the 2011 primary curriculum
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article will argue that although history can seem a ‘hard' discipline for young children, it can be made accessible and exciting through telling stories about objects. The article does not contain advice about obtaining objects:...
History, artefacts and storytelling in the 2011 primary curriculum
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Wangari Maathai as a significant individual
Primary History article
"Instead of a curriculum where race, gender and disability are mainly rooted in victim narratives, include positive representation. Go beyond teaching slavery and the Holocaust or gender narratives of victimhood…Actively use examples and narratives countering this dominance." Bennie Kara, (2021, p.59)
The 2014 National Curriculum for history sets out that children...
Wangari Maathai as a significant individual
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What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
Primary History article
One of the many amazing things about History is that it can be found in everything; even the smallest or most mundane objects can provide an insight into how life has changed or provide a greater understanding of a different period in time.
Late October last year as the light...
What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1
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Balderstone St Leonard’s CE Primary School: our journey to the Quality Mark Gold Award
Primary History article
Kate Turner provides a fantastic insight into the way in which their school has achieved the Gold Standard Quality Mark. She demonstrates both the overarching themes that underpin the history curriculum in the school but also their sensitivity to ethnic and cultural diversity, the rich opportunities gained through engaging with...
Balderstone St Leonard’s CE Primary School: our journey to the Quality Mark Gold Award
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Fifty years ago we lost the need to know our twelve times tables
Primary History article
In the first year of junior school, I was in Mrs Phillip’s class. She was one of those teachers who you remember, but, sadly not for good reasons. I was very frightened of Mrs Phillips and the worst part of every week was the tables test… forwards, backwards and questions...
Fifty years ago we lost the need to know our twelve times tables
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One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
Primary History feature
Studland village is situated in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Purbeck is not an island in the normal sense of being surrounded by sea. However, it is surrounded by large hills to its north and has a coastline to its south, both of which cut it off from the...
One of my favourite history places: Studland Village
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Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
Primary History article
From a visit to a local museum or heritage site, to using bushcraft skills to give pupils first-hand experience of what it might have been like to live in ancient times, teaching prehistory outside the classroom can really give this area of the curriculum the wow factor. The inclusion of...
Teaching pre-history outside the classroom
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How museum collections make ancient Egypt, and the people who lived there, real
Primary History article
It’s a safe bet that ancient Egypt is one of the most exciting topics on the primary history curriculum. But that can come with misunderstandings of a complex 3,000-year-long history and an accomplished group of people, embedded by the sensationalised, gory, and othering approach often shown when ancient Egypt features...
How museum collections make ancient Egypt, and the people who lived there, real
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Knowledge-rich approaches to history
Primary History article
In recent years, there has been growing support from policy makers in England for knowledge-rich curricula which view subjects like history as having cultural capital that all pupils should have access to regardless of background. The work of E.D. Hirsch has been particularly influential in arguing that a lack of...
Knowledge-rich approaches to history
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Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What has a small Shropshire town got to do with the modern Olympic Games? Why is a country doctor a key figure in the development of the modern games? Why is one of the 2012 mascots...
Shropshire's Secret Olympic History
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Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
Primary History article
Rachelle Blagdon leads history at Thomas Walling School – one that has already earned a gold Quality Mark. Impressing the assessor particularly was the way the school paid dual attention both to the motivation aspect of the subject and to effective curriculum planning. Four particular approaches were used to enhance...
Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
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Coherence in primary history: How can we get children to see that their history links up?
Primary History article
No teacher ever wants to claim that their history curriculum is incoherent. All schools want to have a curriculum that is logically ordered and consistent, that has clarity and that holds together. It is easy to assume that how we see this coherence as adults must also translate to the...
Coherence in primary history: How can we get children to see that their history links up?
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Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
An article in the Sunday Times newspaper on 7 December reported that Britain is to stop making nominations to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for heritage sites to be granted World Heritage...
Case Study: Prehistory in the primary curriculum: A stonehenge to remember
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Ancient Greeks: The Olympics' War Games - Teaching through Drama
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
When I was a boy the Greek Olympics was one of the perennials of the primary history curriculum, alongside the Battle of Hastings and the execution of Charles I.
I have memories of an old text...
Ancient Greeks: The Olympics' War Games - Teaching through Drama
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Even more support for beginning teachers from the Historical Association
Primary History article
It is easy to be both overwhelmed and confused by the demands of teaching in the primary sector. The Historical Association has long been aware of the need to support student teachers, early career teachers and those that support them. With all the busy demands it is easy to miss...
Even more support for beginning teachers from the Historical Association
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The Great Exhibition of 1851: teaching a significant event at Key Stage 1
Primary History article
The Great Exhibition allows pupils to consider the impact of a particular event. The exhibition provides a means to look at Britain’s wider role in the world and social and technical developments such as the impact of the railways. Pupils can explore a variety of sources, consider the substantive concepts...
The Great Exhibition of 1851: teaching a significant event at Key Stage 1
