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On-demand webinar: Engaging with evidence at A-level
Webinar series: Developing students’ historical thinking at A-level
Webinar series: Developing students’ historical thinking at A-level
Session 4: Engaging with evidence
This final session will focus on evidence. It will include discussion of some of the misconceptions about evidence that students can bring to A-level and how to build students’ understanding of this aspect of the discipline throughout sequences...
On-demand webinar: Engaging with evidence at A-level
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On-demand webinar: Building different types of historical knowledge
Webinar series: Developing students’ historical thinking at A-level
Webinar series: Developing students’ historical thinking at A-level
Session 1: Building different types of historical knowledge
This first session will focus on building students’ knowledge of the particular periods they are studying. It will also consider the different methods teachers have used to help their students to apply their knowledge to...
On-demand webinar: Building different types of historical knowledge
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On-demand webinar: Teaching language directly
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 6: Teaching language directly
In this sixth and final session, Jacob and Mike will explain how history teachers can teach words and phrases very directly to their pupils. They will suggest that 'drill and thrill' – rather than laminated word mats – can make the language...
On-demand webinar: Teaching language directly
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On-demand webinar: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 5: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
In this fifth session, Jacob and Mike will argue that 'source work' often doesn’t work. They will suggest that common classroom approaches to sources are often ineffective and inaccessible. Instead, they will share examples of lessons that teach pupils very...
On-demand webinar: Teaching disciplinary knowledge directly: sources
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Verdun: the endless battle
Historian article
Most can agree that the battle of Verdun started 100 years ago, on 21 February 1916, when the Germans began attacking French positions north and east of the old fortress town on the Meuse river. Few can agree on when it ended. The Germans might draw a line under it...
Verdun: the endless battle
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On-demand webinar: Teaching the whole class
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 3: Teaching the whole class
In this third session, Jacob and Mike will argue that a history teacher should always be a sage on the stage – and not a guide on the side. They will share strategies that allow history teachers to drive learning...
On-demand webinar: Teaching the whole class
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On-demand webinar: Teaching substantive knowledge directly
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 2: Teaching substantive knowledge directly
In this second session, Jacob and Mike will share how history teachers can teach substantive knowledge (what we know about the past) in more direct ways – whilst still challenging and engaging pupils. They will share ideas about using lean...
On-demand webinar: Teaching substantive knowledge directly
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On-demand webinar: Why teach history directly?
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Webinar series: Direct history teaching
Session 1: Why teach history directly?
In this opening session, Jacob and Mike will outline what they mean by direct history teaching. They will explain how this differs from some methods that have become common in history teaching – and why a more direct approach can be...
On-demand webinar: Why teach history directly?
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Working 9–5: how painters, plumbers and programmers help our pupils understand the role of the historian
Teaching History article
Struck by the misinformation that their pupils were bringing from social media to the history classroom, Phillips and Jackson-Buckley were keen to help their pupils identify the signs of good quality history. They decided to focus on developing their pupils’ understanding of how history works, specifically, how historians construct their...
Working 9–5: how painters, plumbers and programmers help our pupils understand the role of the historian
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Teaching Year 9 pupils to see and sense social memory as an expression of knowledge about the past
Teaching History article
Prompted by the attacks on statues in summer 2020, William Mason began to question how effectively he taught his students about popular interpretations or historical ‘myths’. He designed an enquiry about the myth of Churchill to introduce his pupils to the concept of collective memory and to ways in which...
Teaching Year 9 pupils to see and sense social memory as an expression of knowledge about the past
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Using Femina to reframe Year 7 pupils’ understanding of the medieval world
Teaching History article
Concerned about the absence of women’s perspectives in her Year 7 curriculum, and inspired by Ramirez’s book Femina, Freya George set out on a research project that sought to put medieval women at the heart of a new enquiry. Rather than simply telling stories about medieval women, however, George encouraged...
Using Femina to reframe Year 7 pupils’ understanding of the medieval world
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Triumphs Show: Shining a light on Eastern European history with Jadwiga of Poland
Teaching History feature
What is the value of local history? How should the history curriculum reflect the lives of our pupils and local communities? While Andrea was on her PGCE placement, we found ourselves posing these questions one afternoon, during a mentor meeting. We discussed how local history can shine a light on...
Triumphs Show: Shining a light on Eastern European history with Jadwiga of Poland
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Using local history to illuminate the complexities of interpretation with Year 8
Teaching History article
Jack Harris found that his pupils had little knowledge of Sir Harry Smith, the historical figure after whom their school was named, and who was commemorated in various ways in their local community. Researching Smith’s career and reputation, including his role in British colonialism, he uncovered varied interpretations. Harris worked...
Using local history to illuminate the complexities of interpretation with Year 8
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Stalin’s final years
Teaching History feature
Stalinism overshadows Soviet history. Few historical subjects are more controversial. Historians have read the years before 1928 as Stalin’s long rise to power, those after 1953 as an extended reckoning with the Stalinist dictatorship. Definitions of Stalinism fix the features, policies, and practices that constituted Stalin’s personal dictatorship between 1928...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Stalin’s final years
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Interpreting Cyrus the Great for the lower school curriculum
Teaching History article
Tom Leather describes in this article the process by which he and his department extended their ancient history curriculum through an interpretations enquiry about Cyrus the Great. This tested both the subject knowledge of a number of members of the department, and their planning process. His reflections are illuminating not just...
Interpreting Cyrus the Great for the lower school curriculum
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Move Me On 201: trainee is using AI indiscriminately to try to save time
Teaching History feature
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 help to all involved in training new history teachers. Each issue presents a situation in initial teacher education/training with an emphasis upon...
Move Me On 201: trainee is using AI indiscriminately to try to save time
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On-demand webinar: Curriculum coherence and transition to Key Stage 1
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Session 3: Curriculum coherence and transition to Key Stage 1
This webinar will support you to ensure well-planned transition to Key Stage 1, and will give advice on planning for mixed-age Reception/Year 1 classes. It will reflect on developing a coherent history curriculum across all...
On-demand webinar: Curriculum coherence and transition to Key Stage 1
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On-demand webinar: Effective pedagogy for EYFS
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Session 2: Effective pedagogy for EYFS
This webinar will look at effective use of picture books to develop children’s historical vocabulary and their understanding of the past, and will explore thematic approaches for teaching ‘past and present'.
Release date: 7 January 2026Expiry date: 6 January...
On-demand webinar: Effective pedagogy for EYFS
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On-demand webinar: Making sense of curriculum frameworks in EYFS
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Teaching ‘past and present’ in EYFS
Session 1: Making sense of curriculum frameworks in EYFS
This webinar will explore ‘Understanding the World’ and its relationship to history education, understanding the child and their community, and making sense of chronology and progression in EYFS.
Release date: 7 January 2026Expiry date: 6 January 2028
How...
On-demand webinar: Making sense of curriculum frameworks in EYFS
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Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention
Historian article
‘Social Darwinism’ has been associated in academia and popular consciousness with negative concepts such as hyper-nationalism and eugenics. Geoffrey M. Hodgson challenges the notion that Social Darwinism or its proponents were ever well-defined. By tracing the use of ‘Social Darwinism’ across academic disciplines and globally over a long period, Hodgson...
Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention
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More than skin deep: unmasking the history of cold cream
Historian article
From the ancient Mediterranean to the shelves of twenty-first century pharmacies and cosmetic counters, cold cream has a long history. In this article, Farhana Qayoom Shaikh explores how Galen’s simple formula for treating skin complaints transitioned over the centuries into a luxury beauty product.
More than skin deep: unmasking the history of cold cream
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Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
Historian feature
What are the pitfalls and pluses of comparing historical figures with contemporary politicians? Chris Godden argues that recent comparisons of Donald Trump with one of his predecessors may be wide of the mark, but that a more illuminating parallel may be found with one of Britain’s most controversial nineteenth-century politicians.
Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
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Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?
Historian article
Edgar Ǣtheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, was the last serious Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne of Edward the Confessor. In this article, Jamie Page explores how his long life after 1066 sheds a fascinating light on the emerging Anglo-Norman world and its significant impact in Europe and the Middle East.
Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?
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Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks
Historian article
Hulks – former naval ships used as prisons for those convicted of serious crime and sentenced to transportation – were intended to be a temporary solution to a penal crisis caused by the American Revolutionary Wars. These ‘schools of vice’, or ‘floating hells’ lasted 80 years, casting a shadow over...
Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks
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Shadow states and armed struggle
Historian article
How did groups resisting the creation of new borders after 1947 use shadow state structures? Luke Rimmo Lego, Abigail Tamang and Sneha Singh with Laishram Bullion and Chinglai Ngamba Moirangthem explore the history of these structures and their development over the past half century.
Shadow states and armed struggle
