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.

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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Keystage1 roles of learners
Curriculum Rationale

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

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great fire experience
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…

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Great Fire
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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Louis Braille
Louis Braille – evaluating the video

This lesson comes at the end of the sequence of lessons which explore Louis Braille’s life and achievements.  Rather than…

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Help Tom to fight the Great Fire

This ICT based lesson draws heavily on the superb new website created as a joint enterprise by the National Archives,…

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keystage 1
History for pupils with EAL in Key Stages 1 and 2

Most of you will be well-versed in strategies for helping children with EAL access other subjects in the curriculum and…

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S.E.N. in history at Key Stage 1 and 2

By inclusion we mean three things here: setting suitable learning challenges, responding to pupils’ diverse needs, and overcoming potential barriers…

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planning cal
Forward planning in history at Key Stage 1 and 2

It goes without saying that a history improvement plan must reflect the whole school approach.  There is no need for…

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prioritising
Prioritising your work as history subject leader at Key Stage 1

When you are new to the role, your first priority must always be to establish the health of the subject…

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leading
Developing your staff at key stage 1

Nearly all teachers enjoy teaching history and will want to improve the quality of their own teaching so that children…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
Monitoring in history at Key Stage 1

Almost every subject leader I know feels that they ought to be doing more monitoring, as if ordered to ‘Go…

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Keystage1 roles of learners
General advice regarding progression in history at Key Stage 1

This section outlines the key indicators of progression.  The other section looks at each strand in detail.  We all need to…

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planner
Long term planning for history at Key Stage 1

Superficially, Key Stage1 seems the least complex history curriculum to plan because the burden of content to be covered seems…

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History Teaching Smart Tasks for Key Stage 1

This section of the site look at smart tasks: short enquiry-led thinking skills activities. Unlike the outstanding lessons section, they…

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Teaching interpretations in history at Key Stage 1

For many teachers of infants, interpretations is the hardest of all the ideas to get across.  It is an abstract…

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Enquiry in history at Key Stage 1

History is full of rich and interesting stories, and pupils love to hear them.  Indeed, a good story well-told is…

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mystery photo
Great Fire Smart Task .What’s going on in our mystery picture?

This simple starter activity uses a large, coloured, artist’s reconstruction of Pepys burying his possessions when he knows it is…

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The gunpowder plot
Are you teaching your KS1 the truth about Guy Fawkes?

In many schools I hear teachers tell the same story about Guido Fawkes. Guy Fawkes was angry at the King…

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great fire
Excellent resource on Great Fire of London for KS1

The Museum of London has a wonderful selection of teaching resources on its website including an interactive story and perhaps best of…

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