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Primary history through the secondary school lens
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
Trying to explain what pupils at primary school should know and understand about history to help their progress at secondary school is an extremely tricky question to answer (so thanks Jon!). Ultimately there are...
Primary history through the secondary school lens
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Young Historian Awards 2022 – the winners
Annual history competition for schools
This was a very positive year for the Young Historian Awards. The judging panel continue to be delighted by the quality of the work submitted in a variety of formats by young historians. Although entry levels were lower than during the pandemic, the data confirms that, with the exception of...
Young Historian Awards 2022 – the winners
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Teaching History 89
Journal
4 Editorial
5 Teaching History Briefing
9 'I can't remember doing Romans' by Elizabeth Wood and Cathie Holden
13 Colonies, colonials and World War II by Marika Sherwood
19 Does GCSE provide a valid assessment of the achievements of the more able? by Elizabeth Pickles
22 Time for history by...
Teaching History 89
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Young Historian Awards 2018 – Winners
Young Historian Awards
Each year the Historical Association partners with the Spirit of Normandy Trust to award young historians who have shown excellent knowledge and demonstrated historical argument around a subject associated with a series of themes. The competition is divided into age brackets and the entry at secondary level is by essay judged...
Young Historian Awards 2018 – Winners
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Webinar series: Deep dive with confidence
HA webinar series for current and aspiring primary history subject leaders
"This series was very useful in preparing for Ofsted and ensuring I was considering the curriculum outcomes sufficiently."
What does this series cover?
We are pleased to offer teachers another chance to access this series of webinars which will address the implications of the 2023 Ofsted subject report for primary...
Webinar series: Deep dive with confidence
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Teaching the Ancient Greeks
Primary History article
Ancient Greece has been part of the primary national curriculum since its inception in 1991 so you may already have a viable scheme of work and classroom resources in place. However, this is not a reason for eschewing the opportunity to review what you are doing, especially to explore how...
Teaching the Ancient Greeks
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History and the early years: A view from the classroom
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
History gives colour and vitality to the curriculum. There are just so many engaging things to do. Without history there wouldn't be so much fun; whether in handling objects such as: the old wooden toys,...
History and the early years: A view from the classroom
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Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
The issues surrounding the construction of a post-conflict history curriculum are complex. At its most basic level, the memory choice for a country emerging from mass violence is between remembering and forgetting, with...
Primary history and the curriculum: a South African perspective
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Round Table Discussion: Does Content Matter?
Annual Conference 2010
This round table discussion took place on Saturday 15th May 2010. The panel includes: Dr Katharine Burn (Editor of Teaching History), Dr Michael Riley (Director of the Schools History Project.); Colin Jones (President of the Royal Historical Society and Professor of History at Queen Mary, London); David Evans (Former Head of Eton).
Round Table Discussion: Does Content Matter?
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Marr: magpie or marsh harrier?
Teaching History article
The quest for the common characteristics of the genus ‘historian' with 16- to 19-year-olds
Diana Laffin writes about historical language and explores how understanding different historians' use of language can help sixth form students refine and deepen both their understanding of the discipline of history and their abilities to practise...
Marr: magpie or marsh harrier?
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Leading Primary History Guidebook 2006
Guidebook for History Co-ordinators
Please note: this publication refers to the pre-2014 National Curriculum, but some content is still relevant. For current and recent content see our Subject leaders section.
Contents
Leading primary history: The Foundation Stage
Key Stage 1
Citizenship in the Primary Years
Learning and Teaching about the past in the foundation stage
Learning...
Leading Primary History Guidebook 2006
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Primary History 13
Journal
4 Viewpoint Grant Bage
4 Primary History Teachers - an endangered species? Alan Hodkinson
5 Corinthian Helmet Patrick Wood
6 Begin at the Beginning: The Iliad Patrick Wood
8 Using Greek Vases in a Study of the Greeks at Key Stage 2 Keith Dickson
10 Behind the Suit An Ofsted...
Primary History 13
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Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
Primary History article
‘I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves’ – Mary Wollstonecraft
The National Curriculum gives the freedom to select any significant individual and many schools have already chosen those outside the commonly-used ones such as Florence Nightingale, Christopher Columbus and Queen Victoria. There is also...
Significant people: Mary Wollstonecraft
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Teaching and learning through personal, family and local history
E-CPD
N.B. This unit was produced before the 2014 curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links.
This unit is concerned with the way that primary age pupils can make use of their own personal, family and local history...
Teaching and learning through personal, family and local history
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The wheels (and horses…) on the bus
Primary History article
A theme in the Early Years will have many cross-curricular links, encompassing many of the different areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework. The focus for this article is on historical elements of Understanding the World; however there will be some cross-over into other areas of...
The wheels (and horses…) on the bus
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The First Crusade, 1095–99
Historian feature
As Christianity had spread across Europe, Islam had spread across the Middle East. At the end of the eleventh century the relationship between the Muslim leader of Jerusalem and the Christian communities and travellers to the city fractured. Along with other key relationships across Europe, the Middle East and around...
The First Crusade, 1095–99
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The Historian 154: Jubilee
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article for free)
6 (Un)exceptional women: queenship and power in medieval Europe – Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Storey (Read article)
10 Dress becomes her: the appearance and apparel of Elizabeth II – Benjamin Linley Wild (Read article)
15 Reviews
16 The throne and the fairy tellers –...
The Historian 154: Jubilee
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HA Blog Watch
Selected history education blogs
We've collated some of the best history education blogs here. The list isn't exhaustive so if there is a great history education blog out there that is not on this list – let us know!
One Big History Department
HA Secondary Committee blog
One Big History Department (OBHD) has been...
HA Blog Watch
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Being historically rigorous with creativity
Teaching History article
After a Fellowship in Holocaust Education at the Imperial War Museum, Andy Lawrence decided that something was missing in normal approaches to teaching emotive and controversial issues such as genocide, a deficit demonstrated by recent research by the Holocaust Education Development Programme. As part of his fellowship, Lawrence created an...
Being historically rigorous with creativity
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New, Novice or Nervous? 165: Enabling progress - students who need more support
Teaching History feature
Students often find history ‘hard’; senior managers and pastoral managers perceive it as challenging and many, with the best of intentions, steer students away from taking it for GCSE. Indeed, in the most recent HA survey, 49% of respondents reported that some students are actively discouraged or prevented from continuing...
New, Novice or Nervous? 165: Enabling progress - students who need more support
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Year 9 - Connecting past, present and future
Teaching History article
Possible futures: using frameworks of knowledge to help Year 9 connect past, present and future
How can we help pupils integrate history into coherent ‘Big Pictures' or mental frameworks? Building on traditions of classroom research and theorising reported in earlier editions of Teaching History, Dan Nuttall reports how his department set...
Year 9 - Connecting past, present and future
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The Historian 149: Pandemics
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article for free)
6 Florence Nightingale and epidemics – Richard Bates (Read article)
11 Real Lives: Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial in Hints churchyard: Edward George Keeling – Trevor James (Read article)
12 The experience of Bilston in the cholera epidemic of 1831–32: a melancholy pre-eminence in...
The Historian 149: Pandemics
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Recorded webinar: Maya ruler King Pakal II of Palenque
‘A veritable Tutankhamun of the New World’
The discovery in 1952 of the tomb of King Pakal II of Palenque has been called the most important archaeological find in the history of the Americas. Protected by a magnificently sculpted stone sarcophagus depicting Pakal’s descent to the underworld and re-birth as the maize god lay the body of...
Recorded webinar: Maya ruler King Pakal II of Palenque
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ICT Resources for GCSE History Teachers
Article
The HA has compiled 3 invaluable spreadsheets that take you through the main History GCSE specifications, topic by topic, providing online resources for each topic and covering all the areas specified by the main awarding bodies. Each spreadsheet takes you through each specification and is filled with links to all the best available...
ICT Resources for GCSE History Teachers
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Polychronicon 150: Interpreting the French Revolution
Teaching History feature
For most of the last two centuries, historical interpretations of the French Revolution have focused on its place in a grand narrative of modernity. For the most ‘counter-revolutionary' writers, the Revolution showed why modernity was to be resisted - destroying traditional institutions and disrupting all that was valuable in an...
Polychronicon 150: Interpreting the French Revolution