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Thinking skills in history at Key Stage 1

There is nothing particularly radical about using a thinking skills approach to history at Key Stage 1, but there are…

ICT and history at Key Stage 1

There are lots of opportunities for pupils to use a range of applications at Key Stage 1 that go beyond…

Linking history and literacy

There is now a considerable amount of advice available to schools on how to link history with literacy, but OFSTED…

Opportunities for Citizenship Education in Key Stage One History

History offers an excellent context for developing many of the worthwhile skills and understanding that form part of the citizenship…

Curriculum models for KS1 history

It seems a logical extension of the advice on long-term planning of the curriculum to offer you some models of…

Curriculum Rationale

Rationale for KS1 history planning Of all the key stages KS1, came off lightly from Gove’s reforms of the history…

SMART TASK: Germany 1933-34 Revision Quickie

Which factors played their part in establishing Nazi dictatorship in 1933-4? You need to be logged in to view this…

Views of learners in history at KS4

Over the past six or seven years interest in the pupil or student voice has soared. We are now fortunate…

Roles for Learners: Key Stage 4

When so much of Key Stage 4 time is spent making sure that students know enough to answer any GCSE…

’50’ imaginative learning activities for Key Stage 4

We all know that the learning experience for students at Key Stage 4 could be more varied in some schools….

The learning approach in history at Key Stage 4

Learning in Key Stage 4 history lessons is nearly always good but rarely is it outstanding. Because we are so…

Creativity in Key Stage 4 history

When the demands of the examination, and the results, loom large over our GCSE teaching, you might be forgiven for…

What is history at Key Stage 4?

You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a really crass question. If you don’t know by now, and…

SMART TASK: GCSE questions on Renaissance Medicine

Using Zones of relevance to answer two possible questions on Renaissance Medicine. Have you ever despaired of GCSE history students…

KS1 | Great Fire interactive resource

Just thought I’d bring to the attention of those who haven’t yet seen it the interesting resource put together by…

Defenders of the new history curriculum have their say: a dozen dons can’t be wrong?

In this morning’s Times, supported by a front page and leader aticle, a dozen dons have come out of the…

Smart Tasks – Minted: Telling the story of changing British rulers by exploring 10 significant coins

If you are looking for an interesting way of offering pupils overviews or of looking at the concept of significance,…

Dread of the lash: How harsh were punishments on slave plantations?

This enquiry-led lesson really does make pupils think as historians. Not only are they introduced to authentic slave punishment records,…

Reasons for the abolition of the slave trade: poacher turned gamekeeper

This lesson turns on a paradox. If the transatlantic slave trade was prospering in 1787, why was it abolished just…

How should we film the Middle passage? How accurate are Roots and Amistad?

This varied lesson challenges pupils to use evidence constructively to create their own version of conditions on the Middle Passage….

What can we learn about the slave trade from just one poem?

This lesson uses a very simple source to help pupils to get a feel for some of the issues they…

Rosa Parks – the true story

This open-ended enquiry explores one of the most abiding stories of American Civil Rights. Students are invited to advise a…

SMART TASK – How did a small country on the edge of North West Europe manage to rule a quarter of the world’s land surface and 400 million people?

This lesson asks an important question that the textbooks rarely cover and comes after students have looked at events in…

Smart Task: End of Empire: Why did it all end so quickly?

This SMART task ask pupils to classify a number of different smaller reasons why The Empire declined and fell, under…

Smart Task: Popping corks? What is the best analogy to explain the causes of the French Revolution

A smart task for Gifted and Talented pupils in Y9. Towards the end of your study of the causes of…

What should we write on Robespierre’s plaque?

In his home town of Arras, the plaque commemorating his achievements has been vandalised and replaced so often that it…

Execution of Louis XVI

Enquiry question: When the French Revolution started in 1789, few wanted the death of the king or the end of…

Smart Task: Evacuation: was it worth it?

Many primary schools look in detail at evacuation in World War Two and you may not want to go over…

Smart Task: How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two?

Helping pupils to develop overviews of different timescales is central to the Key Stage 3 curriculum. When so few carry…

Smart Task: Was the bombing of Dresden justified?

Should the statue to Bomber Harris be removed? It is now 20 years since the statue to Bomber Harris was…

Teaching Dunkirk at KS3 – WW2 – Spinning Dunkirk

Rather than simply asking pupils passively to read examples of propaganda surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk they are asked to…

History mystery. Why did Ernest join up in 1914, aged just 15?

Why did 15 year-old boys want to join up in 1914?

At the heart of this lesson lies a history mystery. Many of you will have seen something similar in Peter…

GCSE Modern World history: Using history of football to interest boys in Inter-war relations 1919-39

If you have ever found it difficult to motivate boys looking at the Inter-war years from 1919-39, why not try…

Marking the anniversary of the Wall Street Crash

To mark the 80th anniversary of the Wall St. Crash in 1929, the Guardian produced a simple guide to the…

What can we learn about medieval churches from the outside and inside?

This innovative lesson uses the gallery strategy in which pupils compare a range of fascinating colour images to discover what…

‘100’ Great Teaching Ideas for teaching history at Key Stage 3

This is a massive section on the site, and one that you may quarry for years. I have listed here…

Progression in history – looking at specific strands

In this highly-rated post , with really important attachments, we show how it is even more important to get a…

Assessment for learning in history at Key Stage 3

I have tried to be careful here not to reproduce the mass of material that has been provided by the…

Forward planning in history at Key Stage 3

There are probably four separate strands that you need to weave into your forward planning. To start with there will…

Using data in history at Key Stage 3

NB This section of the site is under development as we wait for best practice post-levels assessment to emerge. There…

Literacy and history at Key Stage 3

In recent years there has been a much stronger emphasis in lesson observations on how well particular groups of pupils…

Rationale for your Key Stage 3 history curriculum

The clever people at OneBigHistoryDepartment have come up with a list of questions to ask yourself about your KS3 history…

Using De Bono’s Thinking Hats to develop thinking skills at Key Stage 1 via the topic the Great Fire of London. Smart Task

Two infant teachers from southern Hampshire, Julie Syms from Crofton Hammond Infants and Nicola Beazley from Sarisbury Green Infants, have…

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