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Terror of the Tramp: Why did vagrancy become such an important issue in Elizabethan England?

GCSE lesson in which students work through a range of differentiated clues to work out 8 reasons which help answer…

How close to World War Three has the world come since 1945. A Year 9 enquiry.

Just as the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary, so the world peace it was set up to maintain…

OFSTED’s view of deep dives in history

Recently Matthew Purves , the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED’s latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools….

Report on leadership of primary history 2020

One of the key features underpinning the high quality of history learning was that history has a high status throughout the school, recognised…

Analysis of OFSTED reports November 2019- February 2020, with my commentary

Analysis of OFSTED reports November 2019-February 2020, with my commentary By trawling through the most recent pre-Covid reports from November…

Meeting OFSTED’s criteria for a good history curriculum at KS1 and 2 during extended transition period

Now that schools have an extra year’s grace from OFSTED to refine their curriculum that is being worked on, it…

Deep dive issues: progression and assessment in primary history

One of the features of deep dive subject inspections is that the two hardest areas of a primary history leader’s…

OFSTED’s early EIF (2019) primary history deep dives

What do the first 3 months’ of reports tell us? Although there is even less detail in the new shorter…

What do deep dive OFSTED inspections look like for history?

What does a new deep dive 2019 inspection look like for history? Basically, there are 6 areas that the history…

Intent, Implementation, Impact to be more representative of the BAME in secondary history

Intent What do you want your students in your school to know by the end of KS3? Why is this…

What does INTENT actually mean for primary history in the new OFSTED Framework for 2019? Building blocks and the Big Picture

What does INTENT actually mean for primary history in the new OFSTED Framework for 2019? Building blocks and the Big…

10 things history leaders need to know about the OFSTED 2019 Framework

10 things you need to know about leading history and the 2019 OFSTED framework You will have to show that you are…

Indian Mutiny/rebellion of 1857

This lesson is aimed at Y9/GCSE students. It addresses three principal aspects of history teaching: How to be thoughtful and…

Smart task Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: Who said it? / Who am I?

This simple task encourages children to spot the differences between Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. With a large A4 image…

British Empire – How can we infer so much about the empire from a study of just one map and the person who created it?

This session starts by looking at the information to be gleaned from a well-known 1886 map of the empire and …

Richard I: Lionheart or loser should we keep his statue – SMART TASK

This short task puts pupils in the role of spin doctors who have to ‘big up’ the reputation of Richard…

Changes for the 2021 GCSE History examination announced by AQA today

AQA GCSE History (8145) Students entering for GCSE History exams next summer will have a choice of studies with one…

Medium Term Planner for Thematic unit Beyond Face Value Year 6

This end-of-key stage unit fulfils the post-1066 thematic requirement of the National Curriculum, but it does so in a particularly…

What does good leadership of history look like at KS 1 and 2 according to recent OFSTED deep dive reports

My analysis of all the recent ‘pre-Covid19 ‘ reports reveals the following comments about primary history leadership, both positive and…

Post-1066 thematic unit for KS2; Beyond Face Value is now complete- full planner ready . Lessons launched soon

Those of you who have patiently waited for us to clear the copyright for the post-1066 thematic unit linking the…

What is primary history? Have a look at this ‘at a glance’ diagram which encapsulates the essence of the subject

The accompanying diagram attempts to display all the main elements of developing your pupils’ historical understanding, in one place. You’ll…

Spectacular Bronze Age finds

Article: BBC Detectorist ‘shaking with happiness’ after Bronze Age find Among the items found this week in Peebles in Scotland…

Benin – KQ1 – Why do YOU think we should study Benin in KS2 history? SMART TASK

After setting Benin in its context of place and time, pupils tour a gallery of images which give them hints…

Benin – KQ2 – What sort of place was Benin 500 to 1,000 years ago? SMART TASK

Here pupils are introduced to the idea of a society from a distant time about which very little evidence remains….

Benin – KQ3 – What can we tell about Benin society at this time from the images and artefacts that have survived?

Using evidence to study Benin This lesson revolves round four principal activities: Fastest Finger First; Mining for meaning, using an…

Benin – KQ4 – What changes took place when the European settlers started trading? Case study of one of the Benin bronzes

The first part of this session revolves around the encounter between indigenous Benin people and the European traders. It then…

Benin – KQ5 – Why did the Victorians get involved in Benin and what were the effects on the Benin people? SMART TASK

Following an intriguing slow reveal of an interesting Victorian photograph showing the capture of the Oda’s palace in Benin, pupils…

Benin – KQ6 – Should the Benin Bronzes be returned? SMART TASK

This lesson is guaranteed to provoke a lively debate. Armed with all the contextual knowledge they need, and stimulated by…

Linking your early civilizations at KS2

There is a real and present danger in KS2 of failing to make links between topics. If we are not…

Wizards and scientists:changing views of Stonehenge. History as interpretations and a constant conversation between past and present

One of the harder parts of teaching history at Ks2 is to explain to pupils that history is a construct,…

Using fiction in KS2 history. What can we read with our pupils during our Ancient Egypt topic?

For many years I have been advocating the use of fiction at KS2 to help pupils to realise the importance…

Banality of OFSTED’s KS1 judgements in history. They don’t know what they are talking about. Stick to your guns.

Sometimes you just have to say it. What on earth do they expect? reading through a number of OFSTED reports…

Medieval Britain: The Crusades

Great lesson on the reasons for the First Crusade which uses a Zone of Relevance activity to show students how…

Is this another find to help us understand Stonehenge?

Yesterday’s more interesting news centred on a newly-published report on the finds at Durrington Wells on Salisbury Plain. As the…

Outstanding Lessons: Key Stage 1

If you have ever searched the internet for inspiration for your history sessions you will know how frustrating it can…

Thinking about evidence at KS2. How do we know what happened in Saxons times?

Where does our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxons come from? It is important that we ask the recurring question “How do…

The importance of getting your key questions right in your KS2 history planning

Scanning through a number of KS2 history websites recently, I realised just how narrow a view of history was being…

How much do you need to talk about chronology when studying Ancient Egypt?

This is a question that has concerned many primary teachers for a long time. I have sat in the back…

Interesting resources on Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole

Great resource on Mary Seacole https://www.mylearning.org/stories/mary-seacole/199? There are three games and an interactive glossary, each one narrated by Mary Seacole. The…

Improving diversity in your KS2 history curriculum

Amid the current state of heightened racial tension across Britain and the USA, I thought it might be a good…

Getting your enquiry questions right for your history topics at KS1

Getting your enquiry questions right at KS1 On the Historical Association website is a scheme of work on George Stephenson…

Assessment for Learning: 5 core strategies that work

Helps teachers to collect information about pupils’ achievement in order to adjust teaching to meet pupils’ learning needs more fully,…

A six step approach to history lessons

Step 1: Teacher motivates pupils to want to learn and scopes the enquiry Hooking them in: eg. with a slow…

10 questions which we should ask when planning historical enquiries at KS2

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Progression in historical interpretations at Key Stage 2 – How the past is represented and interpreted in different ways, and to give reasons for this

Beginning of Key Stage Children can identify differences between versions of the same event e.g. the video gives a different…

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