All parts of this site have been written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, who has vast experience of history teaching from years in the classroom, leading a department, and being part of SLT. For even longer he was an OFSTED history inspector, the county history adviser to Hampshire primary and secondary schools and  consultant and author for the BBC, DFE, exam boards, publishers, and QCA. Neil continues to support teachers by running national courses and works with teachers in schools. He also runs school-based INSET and acts as ‘virtual adviser’ offering crucial support to new subject leaders.

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…

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German football team 1935
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…

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wall street crash
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…

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medieval churches
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…

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Is this what Dickens' London looked like?
Primary History: Teaching Victorian Britain Key Stage 2

Astonishingly, at a stroke, Gove removed the Victorians from the KS2 history curriculum where it had reigned supreme for decades….

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victorian photo
Using a Victorian census to discover what life was like 100 years ago

There are 4 separate ways of approaching this topic, each becoming increasingly more ambitious. Stage 1 is featured below. Stages…

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Seaside Smart Task
Smart Task: Key Stage 1

Key Stage 1 assessment in history It is really hard to find quality examples of assessment tasks at Key Stage…

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Is this what Dickens' London looked like?
Victorian Cities

If life was so hard for families in the towns why did so many leave the countryside and move to…

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KS3 History
Puzzle Corner 2: Analysing Victorian photographs: the puzzle of the Tredegar patch girls.

Beguilingly simple, but actually quite thought-provoking, this short smart task teaches pupils not to take things at face value –…

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portrait of henry viii
History and literacy – Making sense of a letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

Pupils are given a copy of a letter from Henry to Anne Boleyn. It appears, at first glance to be…

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Boudicca
Assessment of interpretations of Boudicca

Below is an account of an assessment task on Boudicca , with downloadable resources,  just one of many assessed tasks…

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