Outstanding History Lessons at KS3

How significant was Magna Carta? SMART TASK KS3

Pupils have been commissioned to produce two brief podcasts for the British Library website aimed at a teenage audience. The…

The Empire strikes back! SMART TASK KS3

Having previously investigated the criticism of empire, students now set about defending it. After studying a contemporary Indian view of…

Smart Task Puzzle Corner – Why did so many infants die when the death rate was falling?

Puzzle corner: SMART thinking skills task on why so many infants continued to die before their first birthday at a…

Approach to teaching Significant Societies at Key Stage 3

As part of the current curriculum schools are required to teach at least one significant issue or society. Several options…

Teaching local history at Key Stage 3

What does it mean by local? The current curriculum makes it mandatory to include a local history study in your…

Why study the Mughal Empire at Key Stage 3?

Reasons for studying this period above the other tempting options are: The Mughal Empire was the greatest of the Muslim…

Hitler’s propaganda: the cult of leader. Reading internal clues. KS3 & 4 Smart Task

The aim of this short task is to encourage students to look really closely at images for what is there,…

Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?

If Britain was only a few days away from defeat in August 1940 how on earth did she win the…

How well do your pupils know Medieval Britain? A short diagnostic smart task called truth detector

Pupils are given 18 statement cards (provided as RS2) about the Middle Ages on Britain to place on the truth…

Castle design. Would I lie to you? Fun smart task

This enjoyable session has serious intent: to question some careless assumptions about castle building that often creep into Y7 teaching…

Was there really a Blitz spirit? Killer evidence. Smart Task

Historians to this day still argue as to whether there was a Blitz spirit or not. Much depends on the…

Having lost his parliament, then his throne, why did Charles I have to lose his head?

This diamond-9 prioritising causes activity concludes pupils’ investigation of the reasons for the trial and execution of Charles I. Pupils…

Market place: Why I didn’t oppose Hitler.

To help pupils to understand why so few people opposed Hitler in the 1930s the use of this market place…

Cromwell a reputation deserved. KS3 Smart Task

This short task focuses on an entry from a website used by lots of people today, mainly in Ireland, to…

Industrial Britain KS3 Smart Task on the changes brought about by industrialisation

This task helps pupils to develop an overview of the changes ushered in by industrialisation. The aim is to get…

Early Modern Britain 1500-1750 Smart Task: Editor’s Pencil

A quick overview activity in which pupils have to spot and correct 20 deliberate mistakes. Pupils are given an activity with…

Which modern Olympic Games am I? Short KS3 Smart Task

This engaging smart task on the Olympics in the 20th century focuses pupils’ attention on significant individual games as a…

Industrial Revolution KS3 Smart Task: The Mystery of the Blackburn Cemetery

Why not start your class investigation into life during the Industrial Revolution with a mystery? Based on a recent discovery…

KS3 & 4 The Causes of World War One: The Blame Game

This smart task which can be used from Y9 or for GCSE can be used as a form of diagnostic…

Explaining why there were so many casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. SMART TASK

This task, suitable for KS3 Year 9 or KS4 students, presents them with something of a conundrum. When the Allies…

Why are these accounts of the Battle of the Somme, written by the same person, so different? SMART TASK

This task, suitable for Y9 in KS3 or KS4, drives at the heart of source evaluation. Students explore two sources,…

Battalion 101. Why did they shoot? A history mystery

This lesson could be used as part of a Year 9 course or with the Germany module of Y10/11 SHP…

What can we learn about the Empire from a Christmas pudding?

This lesson starts with a simple fun activity, working competitively in teams to locate the source of ingredients for an…

What made runaway slaves successful?

This short enquiry enables pupils to come up with their own ideas about runaway slaves working from first hand evidence…

Smart Tasks – Minted: Telling the story of changing British rulers by exploring 10 significant coins

If you are looking for an interesting way of offering pupils overviews or of looking at the concept of significance,…

Dread of the lash: How harsh were punishments on slave plantations?

This enquiry-led lesson really does make pupils think as historians. Not only are they introduced to authentic slave punishment records,…

Reasons for the abolition of the slave trade: poacher turned gamekeeper

This lesson turns on a paradox. If the transatlantic slave trade was prospering in 1787, why was it abolished just…

How should we film the Middle passage? How accurate are Roots and Amistad?

This varied lesson challenges pupils to use evidence constructively to create their own version of conditions on the Middle Passage….

What can we learn about the slave trade from just one poem?

This lesson uses a very simple source to help pupils to get a feel for some of the issues they…

Rosa Parks – the true story

This open-ended enquiry explores one of the most abiding stories of American Civil Rights. Students are invited to advise a…

SMART TASK – How did a small country on the edge of North West Europe manage to rule a quarter of the world’s land surface and 400 million people?

This lesson asks an important question that the textbooks rarely cover and comes after students have looked at events in…

Outstanding Lessons at KS3

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