-
Teaching History 126: Outside the Classroom
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
06 ‘I understood before, but not like this:’ maximising historical learning by letting pupils take control of trips – Helen Snelson (Read article)
12 A search beyond the classroom: using a museum to support the renewal of a scheme of work – Hannah Moloney and Paula Kitching (Read article)
20...
Teaching History 126: Outside the Classroom
-
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
Article
Professor David Olusoga is a revered TV historian, a writer and a practising academic at Manchester University. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Historical Association's annual Medlicott medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to history.
The recipient of the medal provides the closing lecture of the HA's annual awards evening. Professor...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
-
Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
02 Editorial
03 HA Secondary News
04 Drilling down: how one history department is working towards progression in pupils’ thinking about diversity across Years 7, 8 and 9 – Matthew Bradshaw (Read article)
13 Cunning Plan: The generalisation game - challenging generalisations (Read article)
16 Were industrial towns ‘death-traps’? Year...
Teaching History 135: To They or Not To They
-
Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
When the present informs the past
Research on the history of migration continues to flourish and grow, but scholarship is also becoming increasingly splintered, often focusing on particular settings or population groups. Migration is often used as a way to discuss questions of national identity or diverse religious, ethnic, religious and local identities in the UK,...
Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
-
Move Me On 179: Supporting new history teachers in a lockdown
The problem page for history mentors
This issue’s problem: The closure of school buildings (to most pupils) in March this year brought an abrupt end to the normal opportunities for history trainees’ learning in school.
Move Me On is designed to build critical, informed debate about the character of teacher training, teacher education and professional development. It...
Move Me On 179: Supporting new history teachers in a lockdown
-
My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
Historian feature
Wakefield Bridge Chapel, by the River Calder, is thought by many to be the finest of four bridge chantries, the others being Bradford-on-Avon, Derby and Rotherham. The chapel at Wakefield was originally founded and endowed by the people of Wakefield and district between 1342 and 1359.
In 1397 Edmund de Langley,...
My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
-
Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
Teaching History article
Sarah Jackson-Buckley and Jessie Phillips found themselves perennially dissatisfied with the outcomes of their teaching of the Protestant Reformation. Determined that students should take away a sense of the momentous political and social consequences of the Reformation, they turned to historical scholarship, and to the work of other history teachers on...
Disembarking the religious rollercoaster
-
Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
Historian article
Fiona Edmonds evidences the enduring links between Brittany and Britain throughout the early Middle Ages.
Every year many thousands of British holidaymakers travel to Brittany in search of beaches, bisque and bonhomie. As they board the ferry, they may notice that they are travelling from one Bretagne to another. The names...
Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
-
Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Primary prizes)
History competition for primary schools
The 2026 competition is now open. Entries close on 17 July 2026 (3 July for overseas entries).
We want young people to get the bug for writing about history in an interesting and critical way. Each year the Historical Association in collaboration with the Spirit of Normandy Trust and Classics for All offers a...
Young Historian Awards 2026 – take part (Primary prizes)
-
Primary History 39
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
04 Pupils’ reviews
05 Editorial
06 Primary Noticeboard
08 In My View: why should we continue to learn about the Second World War? — Dan Phillips
11 The impact of World War II on British children's gendered perceptions of contemporary Germany — Russell Gray (Read article)
14 When we were...
Primary History 39
-
Download Local History Month Posters
Posters
Download this year's Local History Month Posters via the link at the bottom of the page.
Everyone lives in an area of rich local heritage, even if they don’t know it yet. May is the time to investigate, explore and discover the history of the world immediately around you. Find...
Download Local History Month Posters
-
Approaches to the History Curriculum: skills based curriculum
Briefing Pack
In 2010 many schools were adopting thematic or skills based curricula in England. This is one way of organising a curriculum. Some of the pros and cons of this approach are elaborated here.
There are an increasing number of schools now adopting a thematic or skills based curriculum for year...
Approaches to the History Curriculum: skills based curriculum
-
Contribute to our Publications
Guide to submitting an article
The Historical Association produces five main publications: The Historian, Teaching History (journal for secondary teachers), Primary History, History (the journal of the HA), and the History Education Research Journal (HERJ).
We are always looking for new authors to contribute articles to these publications!
Find out how to submit an article to one...
Contribute to our Publications
-
'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
As a pre-Plowden primary teacher who queued to get my copy of that report in 1967 and as a contributory author to the Cambridge Primary Review (Alexander, 2009) forty-two years later I can claim, not an...
'Be bloody, bold and resolute': Two possible interpretations of 'local history'
-
The Historian 167: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 167: Science
2025 is a memorable year for scientific anniversaries: it is 350 years since the foundation of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; 200 years since the start of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and Michael Faraday’s discovery of benzine; and for the contemporary historians among our...
The Historian 167: Out now
-
Podcast Series: German History 1918-1948
Multipage Article
An HA Podcasted History of Modern German History: 1918-1948 featuring: Sir Ian Kershaw, Professor Jill Stephenson of the University of Edinburgh, Dr Christina von Hodenberg of Queen Mary, University of London and Professor Benjamin Ziemann of the University of Sheffield.
Podcast Series: German History 1918-1948
-
Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
Historian article
Ongoing interdisciplinary developments have cast light on the surprisingly sophisticated world of Viking-age and medieval Scandinavian law and its wide-ranging influence in these societies.
In many ways, the Viking Age and its inhabitants are more familiar than ever before. From video games to television and films, new narrative frontiers and bigger...
Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
-
Bridging the gap: supporting early career teachers’ professional development as history teachers
Teaching History article
Kate Hawkey and Helen Snelson, who have both worked for many years in initial teacher education, wanted to find ways of supporting recently qualified teachers in continuing to develop their practice. Working in two different parts of the country, they established different kinds of informal, but well-focused history-specific, support groups....
Bridging the gap: supporting early career teachers’ professional development as history teachers
-
Year 7 explore the story of a London street
Teaching History article
One street, twenty children and the experience of a changing town: Year 7 explore the story of a London street
Michael Wood and others have recently drawn attention to the ways in which big stories can be told through local histories. Hughes and De Silva report a teaching unit through...
Year 7 explore the story of a London street
-
How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
Teaching History article
In March 2020, when Covid-19’s lockdown restrictions saw schools closed to the majority of children, Carenza Lewis quickly began thinking of ways to help both teachers and parents. Drawing on extensive experience of enabling children and young people to learn from practical engagement in archaeology, she came up with a...
How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
-
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
-
Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Editorial comment: Pupil reading of written and printed texts is a central element in their ‘Doing History'. As such, it is one of numerous integrated pedagogic activities that combine to make up a lesson, a series...
Dig it: Literacy, ICT, Archaeology and History
-
New, Novice or Nervous? 166: Controversial issues
Teaching History feature
History thrives on questioning, debate and controversy. What makes something controversial varies, however, and we may fail to notice, unless we think very carefully about it, the particular ways in which our lessons can become controversial for our pupils.
When we tackle historical issues that might be seen as controversial, disturbing, shocking or...
New, Novice or Nervous? 166: Controversial issues
-
Continuing your professional development as an early career history teacher
Guidance for primary school teachers
This document is designed for those in years 2-4 of their career who are teaching history. Its primary purpose is to nurture subject-specific career development immediately after the NQT year. Working with these ideas will help prepare an early career teacher for HA Chartered Teacher of History status in the...
Continuing your professional development as an early career history teacher
-
Key national History Subject Associations and institutes in the UK and their remits
Multipage Article
Three Subject Associations and a key national institute keep a watching brief as part of much wider remits on issues pertaining to the relationship of history as it is taught and researched in British universities and history as it is taught and learned in schools. Their interests inevitably overlap, but...
Key national History Subject Associations and institutes in the UK and their remits
