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Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
Primary History article
‘I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves’ – Mary Wollstonecraft
The National Curriculum gives the freedom to select any significant individual and many schools have already chosen those outside the commonly-used ones such as Florence Nightingale, Christopher Columbus and Queen Victoria. There is also...
Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
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The digital revolution
Primary History article
Developments in information technology continue at an extraordinary pace. Many young children will have little or no idea of what it was like to live in a world without mobile phones, computers and the Internet.
Most children will regularly make use of devices such as smart phones, digital cameras and...
The digital revolution
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Bring on the iPad revolution
Primary History case study
The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic games celebrated change whilst demonstrating the challenges revolutions have on the world. From green pastures to belching chimneystacks, from post-war Britain to the World Wide Internet and text messaging, the way society interacts is changing at an incomprehensible rate.
The same could be...
Bring on the iPad revolution
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Case Study: The history club
Primary History article
Editorial note: this is an introductory article on the History Club concept: Primary History 64, summer 2013, on History and the new 2014+ National Curriculum for History will provide a vade mecum for schools to develop their own History Clubs.
.... sometimes we use the past and today, modern times,...
Case Study: The history club
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How a history club can work for you and your pupils
Primary History article
Bev Forrest writes: As part of my role as a Historical Association Quality Mark assessor I am privileged to visit schools across the country. In the autumn of 2019, I ventured out into Essex to carry out an assessment at Dilkes Academy. I was delighted to recommend gold status for...
How a history club can work for you and your pupils
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The Blitz: All we need to know about World War II?
Primary History article
The Blitz of 1940 is certainly a significant event in Britain’s past, one which has repeatedly been drawn upon as a symbol of national consciousness. It was a time when most of Europe had been defeated by the Nazi regime in Germany, typically through ‘Blitzkrieg’ – or lightning war methods...
The Blitz: All we need to know about World War II?
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For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
Primary History article
In October 1914 France faced defeat on what would later become the Western Front. If the Germans captured the channel ports then the small British Expeditionary Force (BEF) supporting the French would be cut off from Britain, and the channel ports themselves might be used to launch a German invasion of...
For whose God, King and country? Seeing the First World War through South Asian eyes
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Using the back cover image: painted wooden police truncheon
Primary History feature
This painted wooden police truncheon dates from the reign of King William IV (1830–37). It is decorated with a crown and the letters WIVR, standing for King William IV. For some pupils, its function may be obvious, for others it may be mistaken for a rounders or baseball bat, or...
Using the back cover image: painted wooden police truncheon
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Racism and equality through the 1936 Berlin Olympics: the Olympics, Nationalism and Identity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article outlines ideas for teaching history with crosscurricular links to citizenship, with a Year 6 class...
Racism and equality through the 1936 Berlin Olympics: the Olympics, Nationalism and Identity
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Overground, underground and across the sea
Article
Communication is at the heart of what it is to be human, and the British postal service has helped to shape the modern world as we know it today. From cryptic Victorian Valentine cards to a lion encountered on Salisbury Plain, there is nothing ordinary about the story of the post! The British postal service...
Overground, underground and across the sea
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The Bronze Age: what was so special about copper and tin?
Primary History article
On first approaching this period it is possible to feel comfortable with the term ‘Bronze Age’ without ever really interrogating what this means. When did this period happen? What do we mean by the term the Bronze Age and was it different or the same around the world?
Clearly there...
The Bronze Age: what was so special about copper and tin?
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Significant anniversaries: The Bristol Bus Boycott, 1963
Primary History article
It is sixty years since the Bristol Bus Boycott highlighted race inequalities and discrimination in the workplace. In this article, Stuart Boydell revisits this watershed moment and considers how the Bristol Bus Boycott could be incorporated into the curriculum today.
Sixty years ago, Bristol was at the centre of a...
Significant anniversaries: The Bristol Bus Boycott, 1963
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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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Case Study: Historical information and the local community
Primary History article
The ICT revolution
A paper register, a pink-lined A4 mark book and a written school log book are surely historical artefacts? The transition from paper to digital technology continues, changing the world of the classroom teacher whose working life like mine, began in the print age when digital-based education was...
Case Study: Historical information and the local community
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Ideas for Assemblies: Battle of the Somme
Article
Commemorating the Battle of the Somme through an assembly is not an easy task and one which needs careful thought and preparation. This battle officially started on 1 July 1916, after a week-long artillery bombardment, though both British and French commanders had prepared for the offensive for several months. To highlight...
Ideas for Assemblies: Battle of the Somme
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50th anniversary of the UK’s first official Pride march: 1 July 2022
Primary History article
2022 is a special year as it marks the 50th anniversary of the first official UK Pride march which was held in London on 1 July 1972. The Pride movement, and events like the London in Pride march, were inspired and influenced by the Stonewall riots. These were protests that took place...
50th anniversary of the UK’s first official Pride march: 1 July 2022
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ICT and Local History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
It is the year 3002 AD. The spaceship hovers over the surface of the earth, locked in to the spot where the Bolham time capsule is buried.
One thousand years ago the fifteen 9 and 10...
ICT and Local History
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Becoming a Historical Association Teacher Fellow
Primary History feature
When applying for the Age of Revolutions Teacher Fellowship Course, the first thing my headteacher asked me was, ‘How will this benefit the school?’ I hadn’t really thought about it in that much detail. It was a history course with a residential, it would be an excellent CPD course for me...
Becoming a Historical Association Teacher Fellow
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Local history for children: through the eyes of a B.ED. student
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
My favourite subject in primary school was always history. I loved everything about history, but in particular I liked learning about the history of the local area. I went to school in a small Yorkshire town...
Local history for children: through the eyes of a B.ED. student
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School war memorials as the subject for enquiry-based learning
Primary History article
A visit to a local war memorial to coincide with Remembrance Day leaves a lasting legacy. Every year, groups of primary school children visit a war memorial in their town and village or local church, and increasingly benefit from educational visits to sites of remembrance such as the National Memorial...
School war memorials as the subject for enquiry-based learning
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A trail of garnet and gold: Sri Lanka to Anglo-Saxon England
Primary History Article
Sri Lankan garnet in Anglo-Saxon graves?
In 2009 news broke of a fabulous hoard of gold and garnet military ornaments unearthed in a Staffordshire field. TV reports mentioned the garnet might have come from Sri Lanka or India, but how could it have got here? I began reading up what used to be called ‘The Dark...
A trail of garnet and gold: Sri Lanka to Anglo-Saxon England
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Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bronze Age?
Primary History article
It’s September 1992 and in Dover archaeologists from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust are working alongside construction workers when six metres below ground they find some waterlogged planks. Thankfully, an expert in maritime archaeology is on site and he recognises that this could be a lot more than abandoned timber. Uncovering...
Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bronze Age?
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Making the Modern World: The shock of the real at the science museum
Primary History article
Making the Modern World is a vast, exuberant exposition of the real deal. From Arkwright's textile machines that kick-started the industrial revolution to the first Apple computer; from a pair of patented genetically-modified mice to the Apollo 10 command module that orbited the Moon - ons of the industrialised world...
Making the Modern World: The shock of the real at the science museum
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One of my favourite history places: Mount Fitchet Castle
Primary History feature
Alf Wilkinson explores Mount Fitchet Castle in Essex – one of his favourite history places.
As every schoolchild knows, William the Conqueror landed near Hastings in 1066, pursuing his claim to the throne of England. He was accompanied by the pope’s blessing, but also by an army of adventurers who...
One of my favourite history places: Mount Fitchet Castle
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Getting Started: The identification of gifted historians
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The complexity of identification Crucial to personalised learning, entitlement and opportunity for equality is the identification of outstanding gifts and talents in children. The quest to identify gifted young historians is challenging as these pupils...
Getting Started: The identification of gifted historians
