keystage 1

Welcome to the teaching history at KS1 section where you will find masses of advice on how to make KS1 history lessons fun and how to help pupils to take their first steps into the fascinating world that is the past. You will be helped to design and plan an exciting primary history curriculum in line with the requirements of the National Curriculum taking into account the difficult areas of assessment and progression in history.You also will be helped to make the most of history’s contribution to the whole curriculum by being shown cutting edge practice in the areas of cross-curricular planning, literacy, thinking skills and creativity.

If it is imaginative ideas for KS1 history lessons you are looking for, then you will definitely want to spend time in the teaching section with its hundred great primary history teaching strategies and in the learning section with its wide range of imaginative approaches and brilliant ideas for products that children will love.As a subject leader, you will find easily accessible advice that is ‘right on the money’. Years of helping hundreds of infant teachers with their history planning, resourcing, and monitoring in history, has enabled me to know exactly what is needed, and which support strategies really work.

Gender issues in history at Key Stage 1

It is tempting when thinking about boys’ achievement to focus on teaching and learning, but there is a stage before…

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Gifted and Talented in history at KS1

Much has been written in general terms about identifying and then catering for able pupils in history.  OFSTED and others…

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Motivating pupils in history at Key Stage 1

The essence of what appeals to pupils can often be summed up by the words, People, Puzzle and Point.  Children…

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Using artefacts to help children’s historical understanding at Key Stage 1

Since the early 90s, artefacts have become increasingly available either to purchase or to loan. Many firms offer useful replicas…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
Using ICT and film at Key Stage 1

This section alerts you to where you will find examples of published best practice as well as featuring a few…

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Teaching chronology at Key Stage 1

Mention the teaching of chronology to most infant teachers and their eyes glaze over.  Their experience is that it is…

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‘100’ great ideas for teaching history at KS1

At present there are nearly 80 ideas arranged in alphabetical order. You will see that a brief description is offered,…

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ks1 pupils
What makes an outstanding lesson in history at KS1?

There are no separate OFSTED criteria for outstanding primary history let alone for infants alone. The criteria HMI use are…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
The teaching process in history at KS1

The approach offered on this site is only one of many you might know, or even use. Heaven forbid that…

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Personal & Family: Ourselves Key Stage 1

It is not always easy knowing what history to teach very young infants. There are three main issues. How do…

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Teaching Myself – Muddled Bags

As you would expect, it is far better to start with the children themselves and images of them growing up,…

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Teaching Nursery Rhymes to Key Stage 1

This topic is extremely well suited to children in Year R as part of the Foundation stage curriculum. Not only…

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mary seacole
Mary Seacole – How should we remember her?

This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole.  In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale’s. The focus…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
Views of learners on history at Key Stage 1

There has been very little published research on the views of infants on their history work. I think we might…

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How will your school commemorate the end of World War One in 2018?

This short advice sheet invites schools to consider how they will commemorate the centenary of armistice day and provides an…

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Amy Johnson – KQ1 – Why do you think Amy Johnson was famous?

With the help of the slow reveal of the clues in carefully arranged order, pupils build their knowledge of Amy…

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Amy Johnson – KQ2 – How did Amy the secretary end up being the first woman to fly to Australia?

This short, fun activity using mime and props, tells the story of Amy Johnson’s first flight to Australia in a…

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amy johnson cartoon
Amy Johnson – KQ3 – Why was flying to Australia so difficult for Amy Johnson?

Having heard the story of Amy Johnson’s life, pupils are now asked to focus their attention on explaining why it…

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amy johnson arrives in darwin
Amy Johnson – KQ4 – How did people react to Amy Johnson’s famous flight?

How did people react to Amy at the time, and how do we know? Children generate adjectives to describe Amy’s…

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Amy Johnson – KQ5 – How did things change for Amy Johnson after her famous flight?

Was Amy really successful for the rest of her life? A Living graph Smart Task KQ5 The focus here is…

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Amy Johnson – KQ6 – How can we solve the mystery of what happened to Amy Johnson?

This enduring mystery has puzzled historians for over 75 years. New evidence has just come to light which makes this…

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KS1 Star Lesson on The Great Fire

Why did the Great Fire of 1666 burn down so many more houses than other fires in London at that…

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How well do you and your pupils know Florence Nightingale?

Here are 10 probing questions. See how you get on. Oh, and the answers are given below, in case you…

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planning
Just how good is your KS1 history curriculum?

The 12 most crucial questions to ask yourself about your KS1 history curriculum, and some expert answers if you get…

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Moon landing
Teaching Famous Events at Key Stage 1 – Outstanding Lessons

There are two types of events that are expected to be taught to KS1 pupils as part of the National…

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6 top history ideas to cover in your Great Fire topic

Many of you will be starting your Great Fire topic this term. Naturally you will want this to be exciting…

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Keeping up-to-date with your teaching of the Great Fire at KS1

If you get the chance, between the end of term and April, to visit the Museum of London’s exhibition Fire!…

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Y1 explore the contents of the mystery bag
What’s in the bag and who does it belong to? Great Fire Smart Task

An object-based problem-solving approach to learning about life during the Great Fire This Smart Task is just part of a…

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Jack has forgotten what has happened to him. Can the children help jog his memory?
Using nursery rhymes to develop thinking skills in YR: Jack and Jill and the Queen of Hearts

This lesson was kindly provided by David Cowie and his team at Ringwood Infants C of E School.  Their theme…

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Mary Anning Expert Advice
Expert Advice: Key Stage 1 – Mary Anning

She sells sea shells: planning a topic on Mary Anning, Dinosaur hunter, using the Anholt’s Stone girl, Bone girl  “Would you…

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keystage 1 expert advice
Expert Advice: Key Stage 1 – Planning for a cross-curricular topic on Going to the Seaside

This advice is for KS1 teachers planning a cross-curricular topic and focuses on how to integrate history, geography, literacy and…

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Past beyond Living Memory
Past beyond Living Memory: Key Stage 1

Lessons and shorter activities. Please note that these lessons and smart tasks have accompanying resources to download and that most of…

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Raising attainment in history at Key Stage 1

Experience of working with highly effective subject leaders over eighteen years has enabled me to distil SEVEN key factors that…

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leading
Self-evaluation for history at Key Stage 1 and 2

For Primary history subject leaders it is very important to get a clear sense of perspective on self-evaluation. I f…

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leading
Policy and vision for history at Key Stage 1

There is much debate about the value of a history policy, not least how long it should be!!   A couple…

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Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale Lesson and sample planner

Fighting Fit. What did Florence do to improve the lives of the soldiers when she arrived in the Crimea? One…

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leading
Leadership in history

When looking at leadership in history a careful balance has to be created between offering generic advice (which you could…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
APP in history: where are we now? Some key questions answered

APP in history: where are we now? Life after levels This section is no longer current, of course, so please…

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History assessment
Assessment for learning in Primary history

Assessment for Learning is much vaunted and many faceted. If we break down what it means in its constituent parts,…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
Target setting in history at Key Stage 1

The setting of targets with this age group for Foundation subjects is problematic., not least because pupils’ experience of history…

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Progression in history at Key Stage 1

The problem Trying to secure progression within your Key Stage 1 history curriculum is not always as easy as it…

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planning
Long term planning for history at Key Stage 1

Superficially, Key Stage 1 seems the least complex history curriculum to plan because the burden of content to be covered…

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planner
Medium-term planning for history at Key Stage 1

This part of the site contains a dozen detailed fully-developed enquiry-led, key question-driven medium term plans for all the major…

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keystage 1
Short-term planning in history at Key Stage 1

This site does not favour the publication of short-term planning, preferring instead to focus on very detailed medium-term planning and…

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Creativity in History at Key Stages 1 and 2

What follows below is an attempt to summarise the key points from recent research and to illustrate them with lively…

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Wright Brothers
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…

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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…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
Linking history and literacy

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

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Keystage1 roles of learners
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…

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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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