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'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Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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'
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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
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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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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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Happy and Glorious: exploring and celebrating the Platinum Jubilee
Primary History article
History is full of significant royals, yet few seem quite so remarkable as Her Majesty the Queen. Since her birth in 1926, she has witnessed the tragedy of a world war, the decline of the British Empire and the birth of the Commonwealth of Nations. Not only is she the...
Happy and Glorious: exploring and celebrating the Platinum Jubilee
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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
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HA Primary Survey Report 2011
Primary Survey
Primary Teachers need more training for history and they have ideas about what the want to teachThe Historical Association has carried out a survey of Primary teachers across England and Wales revealing that training for teachers at that level is one of their biggest concerns. Primary School Teachers may not...
HA Primary Survey Report 2011
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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
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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
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Confronting conflicts: history teachers’ reactions to spontaneous controversial remarks
Teaching History article
Sometimes, things don’t go to plan. Current events come into the classroom, especially the history classroom. How should students’ responses to current affairs be dealt with there? How should students’ desire to voice their opinions be handled if their opinion is unpopular. What if the student is simply wrong? How...
Confronting conflicts: history teachers’ reactions to spontaneous controversial remarks
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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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Webinar series: Making substantive and disciplinary knowledge work together in the secondary history curriculum
HA on-demand webinar series for secondary history teachers
The last few years have, rightly, seen a lot of discussion about 'what' we include in the history curriculum. This has meant that many schools now teach a wider-ranging and more inclusive form of history. As this work has an impact, it is important to continue to think about how...
Webinar series: Making substantive and disciplinary knowledge work together in the secondary history curriculum
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The Dramas of History
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Mantle of the Expert [MoE] dramatic system works quite simply whereby classes are first of all invited to imagine. Within this imagined world - the class view their world through the eyes of other people...
The Dramas of History
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Immerse yourself in history
Information
Historical Association membership is an enjoyable way to learn and expand your history knowledge, take part in local and national events, gain access to expertise and meet others with a similar interest in history.
Membership includes a subscription to our quarterly magazine The Historian delivered directly to your door and access to the...
Immerse yourself in history
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On-demand Secondary CPD: Spring 2026
Information
We know that it’s not easy for teachers to access CPD: workload is high, budgets are tight and it can be difficult to get out of school. We know how essential subject-specific professional development is to you and that is why we have worked to provide a wide range of...
On-demand Secondary CPD: Spring 2026
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Local history and literacy using written (and other) sources
Primary History article
Jo Barkham shows how creative and challenging teaching can stimulate and engage even the youngest pupils in the reading of written, printed and multi-modal sources...
Local history and literacy using written (and other) sources
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Exploring the use of historical fiction to support historical learning
Article
How many of us became interested in history through reading a good historical story? When starting this article we came up with a seemingly endless list of historically based stories and films which have inspired us. Clearly, we are surrounded by references to the past in popular culture and our...
Exploring the use of historical fiction to support historical learning
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Update: The Princes in the Tower
Historian feature
A subject of endless fascination for the historian, the story of the ‘princes in the Tower’ hit the news again recently, following the discovery of Richard III’s body in Leicester and Philippa Langley’s ensuing quest to show that the much-maligned king was not responsible for the princes’ deaths. In this...
Update: The Princes in the Tower
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Primary History 37
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
3 Editorial
4 Primary Noticeboard
6 In My View: Migration: the search for a better life? – Katherine Hann (Read article)
10 Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A significant Victorian? – Penelope Harnett (Read article)
13 Helping students make sense of historical time – Keith C. Barton (Read article)
15 Ofsted Report...
Primary History 37
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Primary History 9
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
4 Editorial
5 A History Curriculum for the Millennium - Sue Bennett
7 Making the Most of a Past Non-European Society in Key Stage 2: A Case Study of Ancient Egypt - Tim Lomas, Dave Cordingley and Lesley Tyreman
9 'Time Machine' at the British Museum - Alan Francis
10 Bearpark...
Primary History 9
