-
The new history 'AS-Level': principles for planning a scheme of work
Teaching History article
The new AS and A2 specifications have led to paperwork, headaches and late nights for teachers. Rachael Rudham recognises the fresh demands that the new AS-level presents – not least of which is the opening up of post-16 history to a broader range of ability. Clearly it is not possible...
The new history 'AS-Level': principles for planning a scheme of work
-
Doing history: is it too dangerous to be a medieval historian?
Presidential Lecture
Podcast of Professor Anne Curry, President of the Historical Association. Friday 14th May 2010.
Head of the School of Humanities and Professor of Medieval History, Southampton University ‘Re your piece in the Daily Mail, 26 October 2009, on the battle of Agincourt, I was absolutely disgusted at the inference that...
Doing history: is it too dangerous to be a medieval historian?
-
Diagrams in History
Historian article
One of the gifts of the social sciences to history is the use of expository diagrams; but attention is rarely given to the history of diagrams. Maps - schematized representations of locations in spatial relation to one another - can be dated back to Babylonia in the late third millennium...
Diagrams in History
-
Move Me On 202: trainee is struggling to make history accessible...
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 202: trainee is struggling to make history accessible...
-
Polychronicon 146: Interpreting the history of 'big history'
Teaching History feature
In recent decades, a novel approach to history has emerged, called ‘big history', which provides an overview of all of human history, embedded within biological, geological and astronomical history covering the grandest sweep of time and space, from the beginning of the universe to life on Earth here and now....
Polychronicon 146: Interpreting the history of 'big history'
-
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
-
On-demand webinar: How might we effectively use AI in primary history?
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Webinar series: AI in primary history
Session 3: How might we effectively use AI in primary history?Presenter: Stuart Tiffany
In this session, Stuart will explore how AI can be beneficial in tackling some of the challenges that face primary history teachers in a time of continued curriculum emphasis. Alongside this, he will...
On-demand webinar: How might we effectively use AI in primary history?
-
Rethinking progression in historical interpretations through the British Empire
Teaching History article
Let’s stop saying sorry for the Empire! Thus Mastin and Wallace introduce one of their lessons on interpretations of the British Empire. They develop Gary Howells’s ideas from the previous edition of Teaching History to demonstrate exactly what we might get our students to do with interpretations of the past....
Rethinking progression in historical interpretations through the British Empire
-
The National Curriculum Attainment Target (from 2008)
HITT Resource
Level 4
Pupils show their knowledge and understanding of local, national and international history by describing some of the main events, people and periods they have studied, and by identifying where these fit within a chronological framework. They describe characteristic features of past societies and periods to identify change and...
The National Curriculum Attainment Target (from 2008)
-
On-demand webinar series: Direct history teaching
HA webinar series for history teachers at KS3 and KS4
What does this series cover?
In this webinar series, explore a direct approach to teaching history. Presenters Jacob Olivey and Mike Hill will advocate for ‘lean lessons’ that focus on reading, explanation, and discussion to build pupils’ historical knowledge and understanding – with no worksheets, activities, or group work in...
On-demand webinar series: Direct history teaching
-
Move Me On 91: work with historical sources lacks focus
The problem page for history mentors
Problem: Mike Jones, student history teacher, is half-way through his PGCE year. He is making unusually good progress in his knowledge, understanding and practice with regard to the use of sources in history. He also appears to have no difficulty with classroom management and relationships with pupils. He easily creates...
Move Me On 91: work with historical sources lacks focus
-
Databases, spreadsheets, and historical enquiry at Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Databases and spreadsheets used to terrify many history teachers and even where some skill was gained, these tools were approached in a spirit of professional worthiness rather than of intellectual excitement. Rob Alfano oozes intellectual excitement and it is pretty obvious that he communicates this to his pupils. His approaches...
Databases, spreadsheets, and historical enquiry at Key Stage 3
-
On-demand webinar: Observation and feedback as a mentor
Mentoring beginning and early career history teachers in the secondary school
Mentoring beginning and early career history teachers in the secondary school
Session 3: Observation and feedback
In this third webinar, Laura and Victoria explore strategies for dialogic and history-specific observation and post-lesson reflection. This session will focus on how mentors can forefront historical learning in the observation cycle.
Release date: Tuesday...
On-demand webinar: Observation and feedback as a mentor
-
On-demand webinar: Developing formative and extended writing in primary history
Webinar series: History and literacy: better together
History and literacy: better together
Session 5: Developing formative and extended writing in primary history
This webinar will demonstrate how giving pupils opportunities to write formatively can capture their understanding at given points in a learning episode, helping them to structure their developing thinking and supporting teachers in spotting and...
On-demand webinar: Developing formative and extended writing in primary history
-
On-demand webinar: Teaching neurodivergent students to succeed at GCSE History and beyond
Webinar series: Making history accessible
Webinar series: Making history accessible
Session 3: Teaching neurodivergent students to succeed at GCSE History and beyond
This session will offer practical strategies teachers can use to support and challenge neurodivergent students at GCSE. Covering the importance of scaffolding and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Kate Wright will offer a...
On-demand webinar: Teaching neurodivergent students to succeed at GCSE History and beyond
-
On-demand webinar: Showcasing history teaching and learning in special schools
Webinar series: Making history accessible
Webinar series: Making history accessible
Session 4: Showcasing history teaching and learning in special schools
From a special school perspective, Sally Lonsdale and Lucy Bennett explore how history is encountered at their school. With secondary students working at Key Stage 1 age related expectations, history is seen as an ‘enriching...
On-demand webinar: Showcasing history teaching and learning in special schools
-
Helping pupils to view historical film critically
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Introduction: The teaching potential of film
Films about historical events seem like the nearest thing we can give our pupils to a time machine. In commercial film, the physical appearance of the past has often been carefully researched, thus a snippet from...
Helping pupils to view historical film critically
-
Cunning Plan 142: Why do historical interpretations change over time?
Teaching History feature
History teachers have been talking about the need to teach broad narratives, overview and chronology for a long time. They have also recognised how essential it is for students to have an opportunity to study the ways in which the past has been interpreted, and the reasons why these interpretations...
Cunning Plan 142: Why do historical interpretations change over time?
-
Case Study: Historical information and the local community
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
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,...
Case Study: Historical information and the local community
-
On-demand webinar: Avoiding confusion with cause and consequence in primary history
Avoiding confusion and challenging misconceptions in primary history
Avoiding confusion and challenging misconceptions in primary history
Session 2: Avoiding confusion with cause and consequence in primary history
This practical webinar will identify what confuses pupils in the teaching of the disciplinary concept of cause and consequence and will show how such confusion and misconceptions can be avoided and...
On-demand webinar: Avoiding confusion with cause and consequence in primary history
-
On-demand webinar series: Meaningful and useable assessment in the secondary history classroom
On-demand webinar series for secondary history teachers and leaders
What does this series cover?
In this series of six webinars, Jonathan Grande will explore and exemplify a wide range of types and forms of assessment that can be used to provide precise, accurate and meaningful insights into pupils’ historical knowledge and understanding. The sessions will consider the purposes of...
On-demand webinar series: Meaningful and useable assessment in the secondary history classroom
-
Does the grammatical ‘release the conceptual’?
Teaching History article
Jim Carroll noticed basic literacy errors in his Year 13s’ writing, but on closer examination decided that these were not best addressed purely as literacy issues. Through an intervention based on clauses, Carroll managed to enable his students to write better, but he did this by teasing out principles of...
Does the grammatical ‘release the conceptual’?
-
Transforming historical understanding through scripted drama
Teaching History article
An article on scripted drama might seem an unlikely choice for an edition devoted to getting students talking. Surely the point about a script is that the words used are chosen and prescribed by others. However, the examples presented here by Helen Snelson, Ruth Lingard and Kate Brennan demonstrate how...
Transforming historical understanding through scripted drama
-
Story time? Investigating using stories about the French Revolution with Year 12
Teaching History article
Recognising a significant return to stories in the history classroom, Holliss and Carroll wanted to think carefully about what this meant for A-level history. While stories had always been present in their classrooms, they wanted to experiment with the methods of the ‘new storytellers’, building lessons, then sequences of lessons,...
Story time? Investigating using stories about the French Revolution with Year 12
-
Black History Month 2025
News Item
Black History Month is an important opportunity to explore the histories of people who have often been excluded from popular narratives. While the idea of one month on Black history might appear tokenistic or simplistic, it does not have to mean sticking to already well-known characters or limited themes. Therefore,...
Black History Month 2025
