-
Historical fiction and story: the informed imagination
Primary History article
Historical stories and fiction give full rein to children's imaginations and creativity. As such, they are a standard, major element in pupils' historical authoring.Writing history stories is stimulating, enjoyable and challenging. When using their historical imaginations children as authors have to be disciplined. They must work within the strict parameters...
Historical fiction and story: the informed imagination
-
Teaching History 193: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 193: Mediating History
David Lowenthal writes that history is both less than and more than the past. It is less because ‘only a tiny fraction of all that has happened can ever be recovered and recounted’.1 Yet it is also more because ‘it is a new and...
Teaching History 193: Out now
-
Building historical thinking together: breathing new life into mini whiteboards
Teaching History article
Formative assessment, in particular Assessment for Learning, created waves in classrooms in the early 2000s. Mini whiteboards, with pen and cloth, became popular and remain part of the toolkit in some classrooms. Teachers work hard to assess the learning of all students in a class, rather than just those who...
Building historical thinking together: breathing new life into mini whiteboards
-
The role of oracy in primary history
Primary History article
East-the-Water is a primary school in Bideford, Devon. It has recently been awarded a Gold Award Quality Mark. Among many strong features, one was the emphasis on using oracy effectively in history. In this article, Kelly Bridle outlines its role, especially in connecting periods and events across the history curriculum using a range of connectors,...
The role of oracy in primary history
-
Blog off! Refreshing the public history blog
History journal blog
Image: Social media sites have provided a platform for fierce debates about the statues of slave traders such as Edward Colston.
Even if we think the so-called ‘culture war’ is an overinflated red herring, there’s no denying that some of the fiercest debates about history are occurring online. Contests over...
Blog off! Refreshing the public history blog
-
Historical thinking and art education in Canada’s era of societal reckoning
Teaching History article
Michael Pitblado and Agnieszka Chalas, history teacher and art teacher respectively, describe how and why they responded to a call by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to engage students with difficult aspects of Canada’s past, including the forced cultural assimilation of Indigenous peoples through the Indian Residential School System. Having reflected...
Historical thinking and art education in Canada’s era of societal reckoning
-
Popular history: Using the media
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Should we use the media to teach history? Many people who were ‘turned off' history at school have been brought back to it in later life by visits to historic places and especially by television programmes....
Popular history: Using the media
-
What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 2
Primary History article
Part 1 of this article looked at some of the main areas of confusion that often characterise primary pupils’ historical thinking. Part 2 continues this theme by looking at three more key areas of misunderstanding and possible strategies to help improve their understanding:
Confusion 4: Not really grasping how sources can be...
What confuses primary pupils in history? Part 2
-
Leave a legacy
Supporting the HA
Anyone can include a legacy to the Historical Association in their will and it does not have to be for a lot of money.
Some people leave us specific gifts of money, while others choose to leave us the residue of their estate once family and friends have been looked...
Leave a legacy
-
Primary History 21
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Primary Update – Tim Lomas
7 Making the most of ICT at Key Stage 2 – Miriam Norton
10 Mathematics from history – Colin Miller
11 Citizenship and history: equipped to meet the challenge – David Kerr
13 Changes in the National Curriculum – planning for Key Stage 1 history – Jayne Woodhouse
15 Story...
Primary History 21
-
Primary History 20
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Primary Update – Tim Lomas
7 A Viking network project: Kirkgate, Leeds – Barrie Markham Rhodes
8 Has the past a future at Key Stage 2? – Keith Dickson
10 Pythagoras and number – Colin Miller
11 Bringing literacy and history closer together – David Wray and Maureen Lewis
14 Nuffield Primary History Project: the...
Primary History 20
-
Primary History 19
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Primary Update
7 QCA review of national curriculum in history – Gill Watson
8 Planning for history in a changing national curriculum – Tim Lomas
10 History and the literacy hour: threat or challenge? – Grant Bage and Andrew Wrenn
11 History and information technology – Katherine Norris
15...
Primary History 19
-
Primary History 18
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
7 The Cabot Voyages and Atlantic Exploration under the Tudors - Peter Fleming
8 Discovering Cabot's Bristol - Kieron Costello
12 Reviews
16 History Matters
17 Lessons from History for Primary Schools - Roy Hughes
19 Primary History resources
Primary History 18
-
Primary History 17
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
2 News for the Young Historian Scheme - Trevor James
4 Developing design and technology through history - Gordon Guest
7 The Primary Latin Project - Barbara Bell
11 Why teach about time in the primary school? - Pat Hoodless
13 History in the Primary Years: The State of the...
Primary History 17
-
Primary History 15
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Rorke's Drift - Patrick Wood
8 Spicing Up the National Curriculum - Elizabeth Newman & Dick Turpin
10 What was it like when you were at school? - Jill Watson & Penelope Harnett
12 Tales from the River Bank - Martin Richardson
14 Y3 and the Roman Road in Tower Hamlets...
Primary History 15
-
Primary History 14
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Not Henry VIII! - Ann Darrant
6 History Through the Streets - Robin Coulthard
8 We Plough the Fields - Patrick Wood & Norma Bell
10 Digging for Victory - Erica Pounce
15 An Active Approach to Ancient History: the Greeks - Harriet Martin
18 Grace Darling and Reception Children...
Primary History 14
-
Primary History 13
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Viewpoint - Grant Bage
4 Primary History Teachers - an endangered species? - Alan Hodkinson
5 Corinthian Helmet - Patrick Wood
6 Begin at the Beginning: The Iliad - Patrick Wood
8 Using Greek Vases in a Study of the Greeks at Key Stage 2 - Keith Dickson
10...
Primary History 13
-
Primary History 12
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
5 Towards a Philosophy of Primary History - John Fines
Quarry Bank Mill
6 The Apprentice House - Vivienne Woods
7 Who Carried the Can? - Keith Robinson
9 A Dark Satanic Mill - Pauline Milk
10 The Fiction of History - Ian Fell
Ironbridge Gorge Museum
12 The Museum...
Primary History 12
-
Great Debate Final 2025
14th April 2025
Winner:
Quinn Scott – Chesterton Community College, Cambridge
Runners up:
Anya Bensouiah – Kendrick School, Reading
Fred Bosley – The King’s School, Canterbury
Aimee Nelson – Bablake School, Coventry
Finalists:
Emily Tweddle, Earlston High School, Scottish Borders
Hannah Brearton, Upton Hall, Oxford
Rosie Thomson, The Maynard School, Exeter
Isabella Passarelli, Torquay Girls Grammar School,...
Great Debate Final 2025
-
Primary History 31: The Industrial Revolution
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial
4 Primary Noticeboard
6 In My View: Teaching for purpose: one dilemma? - Alan McCully
8 History co-ordinators’ dilemmas - Jayne Woodhouse and Alan Hodkinson
10 I have not seen a butterfly around here… - Penelope Harnett
12 Revising the English Reformation - Peter Fleming
15 Celebrating good practice;...
Primary History 31: The Industrial Revolution
-
LGBTQ+ History Month 2026
20th January 2026
February is LGBTQ+ History Month and the Historical Association has spent a number of years ensuring that the ways in which the past has recorded and represented these communities has been included in our general output. A key issue of presenting the work of historians who are investigating this history...
LGBTQ+ History Month 2026
-
Teaching History 164: Feedback
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial (Read article)
03 HA Secondary News
04 HA Update
10 Paula Worth - ‘My initial concern is to get a hearing’: exploring what makes an effective history essay introduction (Read article)
22 Nick Dennis - Cognitive psychology and low-stakes testing without guarantees (Read article)
29 Carolyn Massey - Asking...
Teaching History 164: Feedback
-
Teaching History 185: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 185: Missing stories
In their prologue to What is History Now? (published earlier this year to mark the 60th anniversary of E.H. Carr’s seminal work), Helen Carr and Susannah Lipscomb both admit to owning a ruler of rulers: a list of monarchs of Britain from the year...
Teaching History 185: Out now
-
Teaching History 184: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 184: Different lenses
For millennia, human beings have used lenses as tools: to help them see further, to magnify or to correct defects of vision. Yet lenses can distort as well as illuminate the unseen.
Robert Hooke, the seventeenth-century scientist who helped popularise the microscope through his...
Teaching History 184: Out now
-
Gordon Batho Local History Award for Schools
HA Award
The HA will be introducing an annual award for a local history resource that can be used in schools. It will be named in honour of Professor Gordon Batho, a former trustee and benefactor of the HA. It will be open to any individual or organisation producing such resources. This...
Gordon Batho Local History Award for Schools
