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Life by sources A to F: really using sources to teach AS history
Teaching History article
The work of Gary Howells will be familiar to many readers of Teaching History—indeed, his last article is heavily cited elsewhere in this edition. He presents here the case in favour of using sources at AS level (16-17 years old). Clearly, historians need to have some form of acquaintance with...
Life by sources A to F: really using sources to teach AS history
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Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
Article
Students of A-level history are required to analyse and evaluate historical interpretations. Samuel Head found limitations in his Year 13 students’ understanding of how and why historians arrive at differing interpretations, which impeded their ability to analyse them. He set about tackling this with carefully sequenced planning and a processual model...
Building Key Stage 5 students’ analysis of interpretations
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Move Me On 180: feeling unprepared to start as NQT because of Covid-19
Teaching History feature
Una Marson had her training interrupted by school closures in response to Covid-19 and feels unprepared to start as an NQT.
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...
Move Me On 180: feeling unprepared to start as NQT because of Covid-19
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Teaching History 180: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 180
The start of a new academic year, with all its comfortingly familiar rituals and routines, also brings with it a set of familiar feelings: the adrenaline rush that comes with last-minute preparations, the thrill (and nerves) of meeting new classes, the sheer pleasure of being back...
Teaching History 180: Out now
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Teaching History 180: How History Works
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial: How History Works (read article for free)
03 HA Secondary News
04 HA Update
10 Curating the imagined past: world building in the history curriculum – Michael Hill (read article)
21 Staying with the shot: shaping the question, lengthening the narrative, broadening the meaning of transatlantic slavery...
Teaching History 180: How History Works
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What difference has the opening (and closing) of archives after 1991 made to the historiography of the Cold War?
Twentieth-century history
Prior to the East European revolutions of 1989, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, commentators outside the region were largely reliant on printed material collected by specialist research libraries, informal rrangements with contacts ‘behind the iron curtain’, information that could be gleaned from visits to the region, and...
What difference has the opening (and closing) of archives after 1991 made to the historiography of the Cold War?
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Resourcing sources
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
As a subject leader, are you often asked to provide historical objects and other documentary sources to support your colleagues with the teaching of history, but don’t know where to start looking? Well – read on!
Teachers need to give children experience of handling a range of sources of information....
Resourcing sources
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Young Quills 2025 – the winners
The Young Quills Awards for best historical fiction for young people
Each year, the Historical Association runs the Young Quills, a competition for published historical fiction for children and young adults (14+). The Young Quills books for each year must be published for the first time in English in the year preceding the competition – so 2024 for this year’s selection....
Young Quills 2025 – the winners
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Sex, symbols, gods, devils: teaching Russian and Soviet cultures, gender, and sexualities
Partnership CPD for teachers of Russian and Soviet history at A-level and GCSE
Book Now
(Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window/tab. Please read the HA CPD terms and conditions before registering)
What did it mean to be a Russian in the time of the Tsars and Soviets?
This one-day event examines the building blocks of Russian identity, asking how...
Sex, symbols, gods, devils: teaching Russian and Soviet cultures, gender, and sexualities
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HA Honorary Fellows 2025
HA awards
We are delighted to announce the Honorary Fellows for 2025.
Each year the Historical Association awards Honorary Fellowships to a small group of people. These awards are to recognise and celebrate outstanding services to history and to the Historical Association. The awards cover services to the Historical Association Branches (of which there are...
HA Honorary Fellows 2025
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Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
HA webinar series for primary teachers and history subject leaders
What does this series cover?
This webinar series will look at each of the key historical concepts and how these can be implemented in a primary setting. It will give practical advice on how to incorporate the concepts into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 including how to frame...
Webinar series: Practical approaches to disciplinary concepts in primary history
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The emergence of the first civilisations
Historian article
Paul Bracey – The emergence of civilisations provided fundamental changes in the capacity for human development. This said, they exhibited similarities, differences, frailties, negative and positive attributes and should be related to a broadly based appreciation of the past.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the assumption was that...
The emergence of the first civilisations
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Enduring Civilisation: cities and citizens in the ‘Aztec Empire’
Historian article
Katherine Bellamy explores the cities and citizens at the heart of the so-called ‘Aztec Empire’, a vast and complex network of distinct indigenous communities who endured despite Spanish colonisation.
The term ‘civilisation’ is derived from the Latin, civilis (civil), and closely connected to civitas (city) and civis (citizen). The cities...
Enduring Civilisation: cities and citizens in the ‘Aztec Empire’
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The Historian 146: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 146: Civilisations
Join The Historian editorial board As with all HA publications The Historian is edited by our members and has a small board of volunteers who discuss possible themes, commission articles, review and commission for regular features and read and respond to articles submitted by members....
The Historian 146: Out now
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Lesson sequence: Twentieth-century Europe
Article
The first lesson of this sequence is available free to all secondary members here.
This series of lessons has been designed to support the teaching of recent 20th century history at Key Stage 3. This sequence of lessons will enable students to learn some of the historical context to the European Union...
Lesson sequence: Twentieth-century Europe
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Lesson sequence: Twentieth-century Europe - taster lesson
Article
This series of lessons has been designed to support the teaching of recent 20th century history at Key Stage 3. This sequence of lessons will enable students to learn some of the historical context to the European Union and Britain’s relationship with the European Union today. It combines overview and...
Lesson sequence: Twentieth-century Europe - taster lesson
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Responding to the climate and environmental crisis through history and geography
Partnership CPD from the Historical Association and Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
Book Now
(Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window/tab. Please read the HA CPD terms and conditions before registering)
In recent years, the climate crisis has become increasingly urgent and apparent. The Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education was founded at UCL in 2022. Their 2024...
Responding to the climate and environmental crisis through history and geography
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The Bigger Picture: The Wider World
HA Primary Subject Leader Area
Perhaps the most important part of the History National Curriculum is the very first paragraph – the Purpose of Study Statement. A crucial part of this section is the very first sentence: ‘A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that...
The Bigger Picture: The Wider World
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Experienced Teacher Programme (ETP)
Immersive online course for experienced history teachers
Autumn 2025 Cohort
Start date: Wednesday 12 November, 5.15pm–6.30pm
Book Now
What is the Experienced Teacher Programme?
This six-week online course is designed to energise your teaching and help you engage with the history education community. In this programme you will access rich, subject-specific professional development designed specifically for experienced teachers: an...
Experienced Teacher Programme (ETP)
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Migration into the UK in the early twenty-first century
Historian article
Sam Scott and Lucy Clarke explore the data covering more recent migration to the United Kingdom, most especially from the EU. They discover that since 2000 migrant destinations have changed. No longer do migrants head exclusively to the big cities and industrial areas, but to rural areas, like Boston in...
Migration into the UK in the early twenty-first century
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The Historian
The magazine of the Historical Association
Welcome to this special sample edition of The Historian. We have gathered here just a few of the fascinating articles and features that have been published in the quarterly editions in recent months. Deciding what to select was not an easy task as there are a wide range of styles,...
The Historian
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How introducing cultural and intellectual history improves critical analysis in the classroom
Teaching History article
In his article in this journal just over a year ago, Steven Driver set out his vision for a less myopic range of topics in A-level coursework. In this edition, Driver demonstrates how he has built student enthusiasm for, and knowledge of, a topic which he had previously identified as...
How introducing cultural and intellectual history improves critical analysis in the classroom
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Cunning Plan 179: using TV producers’ techniques to make the most effective use of retrieval practice
Teaching History feature
Last year I was working with colleagues on a project examining Rosenshine’s principle of beginning lessons with a short review of previous learning.1 At the same time I was working with a history trainee who had been using recall quizzes as a starter with GCSE students. Following a lesson observation,...
Cunning Plan 179: using TV producers’ techniques to make the most effective use of retrieval practice
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The Medlicott Medal 2025
30th April 2025
The Historical Association is delighted to announce that the Medlicott Medal 2025 will be awarded to Dr Christine Counsell.
The award seeks to recognise individuals from a diversity of backgrounds in their service to history.
Christine will be known to many at the HA, as throughout her career she has...
The Medlicott Medal 2025
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Films: Brezhnev – Interpretations
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
(Student and corporate secondary members can view these films in our Student Zone)
Leonid Brezhnev was the second longest serving leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin, overseeing some of the most difficult relations between East and West, yet he does not have the popular cultural legacy of some of the...
Films: Brezhnev – Interpretations
