keystage 2 students in a lessonWelcome to the section for teaching history at KS2 where you will find masses of advice on how to make history both fun and satisfyingly challenging. You will be helped to design and plan an exciting primary history curriculum and taking into account the difficult areas of assessment and progression and mindful of the new focus on curriculum within OFSTED’s framework.

This is a tricky process at Key Stage 2. It is easy to lose continuity if you are not careful. You will be shown which skills and concepts are best developed in which contexts along with examples of key questions that have proved most effective in deepening learning. 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 history planning, literacy, thinking skills and creativity.

The site also offers a unique set of detailed lesson plans and resources for about 150 lessons which have been judged as outstanding by OFSTED.  These cover all the major topics linked to an outstanding medium-term planner which expertly hows how to combine the most significant content  with the development of conceptual understanding.

You will see below that these resources are constantly being added to , thereby ensuring that you have not only the latest and best advise but also the highest quality learning materials for your pupils.

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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pound coin explained
Henry VIII on the money. The strange case of the one pound coin

This is not so much a full lesson as an introduction to the Break with Rome.   It revolves around the…

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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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Creativity KS2
Creativity in History at Key Stages 1 and 2

This best place to start with developing your thinking on creativity in history is to think in terms of: –…

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thinking skills ks2
What do we mean by thinking skills in history at Key Stage 2?

Whenever a new initiative is introduced the natural reaction is to assume that what we have been doing up to…

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Web based resources keystage 2 history
ICT in the history curriculum at Key Stage 2

When planning to use ICT in the history curriculum it is of paramount importance that the history is enhanced by…

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Numeracy at Keystage 2
Numeracy and history at Key Stage 2

History is full of opportunities to enhance pupils’ grasp of numeracy.  We don’t have to contrive examples.  We do, however,…

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citizenship
Opportunities for Citizenship Education in Key Stage 2 History

This section covers two main aspects: the ways of thinking that support citizenship education and the knowledge of past situations…

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keystage 2 history
Designing your curriculum for history at Key Stage 2

With the current National Curriculum for history, schools have had to make some major changes to the structure as well…

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keystage 2 history
Rationale for how you teach your KS2 curriculum history

When planning your history, it is really important that you spend some time establishing a strong rationale for your choice…

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stoneage
How well do you and your KS2 pupils know the Stone Age to Iron Age topic?

A brief set of diagnostic questions to set your Y3 pupils towards the end of the Stone Age to Iron…

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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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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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stoneage
Primary History: Teaching From Stone Age to Iron Age

Although not widely taught before it was introduced into the Ks2 curriculum for 2014, this new area of study has…

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Vikings – KQ5 – What can we learn about Viking settlement from a study of place-name endings?

Viking place name evidence A very active session in which pupils apply their knowledge of Viking place name endings to…

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vikings
Vikings – KQ6 – Raiders or settlers: how should we remember the Vikings?

Differing views of the Vikings Fun concluding lesson in which pupils produce a balanced, illustrated Zig-Zag book to please a…

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benin
Primary History: Teaching Benin

When teaching this unit, you are advised to use the medium-term planner in the planning section which links the learning strategies…

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baghdad map
Primary History: Teaching Early Islam/Baghdad c.900

All the lessons featured below flow from the detailed medium-term planner.  Each has been chosen to help pupils not only…

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Early Islamic civilization – KQ6 – Which of the early Islamic achievements has most effect on our lives today?

Key Question 6 consists of 2 Smart Tasks. Following a brief overview of the impact of early Islamic achievements on…

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Primary History: Teaching the Maya at Key Stage 2

Containing 6 motivating key questions, designed to bring out the central historical skills and concepts related to this topic, as…

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History Teaching Smart Tasks for Key Stage 2

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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Viking boat
KS2 Quick Quiz on the Vikings

This exit task is a quick way of working out whether the key messages of your teaching about the Vikings…

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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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Teaching Life in Britain 1930-1945 at Key Stage 2

Inexplicably axed by Michael Gove from the curriculum, my advice is to carry on teaching this highly successful unit focusing…

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leading
Policy and vision in Key Stage 2 history

Having seen so many Key Stage 2 history policies that nobody on the staff ever refers to,  it seemed pretty…

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