Keystage history

What should we write on Robespierre’s plaque?

In his home town of Arras, the plaque commemorating his achievements has been vandalised and replaced so often that it…

Execution of Louis XVI

Enquiry question: When the French Revolution started in 1789, few wanted the death of the king or the end of…

Smart Task: Evacuation: was it worth it?

Many primary schools look in detail at evacuation in World War Two and you may not want to go over…

Smart Task: How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two?

Helping pupils to develop overviews of different timescales is central to the Key Stage 3 curriculum. When so few carry…

Smart Task: Was the bombing of Dresden justified?

Should the statue to Bomber Harris be removed? It is now 20 years since the statue to Bomber Harris was…

Teaching Dunkirk at KS3 – WW2 – Spinning Dunkirk

Rather than simply asking pupils passively to read examples of propaganda surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk they are asked to…

History mystery. Why did Ernest join up in 1914, aged just 15?

Why did 15 year-old boys want to join up in 1914?

At the heart of this lesson lies a history mystery. Many of you will have seen something similar in Peter…

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…

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…

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…

‘100’ Great Teaching Ideas for teaching history at Key Stage 3

This is a massive section on the site, and one that you may quarry for years. I have listed here…

Progression in history – looking at specific strands

In this highly-rated post , with really important attachments, we show how it is even more important to get a…

Assessment for learning in history at Key Stage 3

I have tried to be careful here not to reproduce the mass of material that has been provided by the…

Forward planning in history at Key Stage 3

There are probably four separate strands that you need to weave into your forward planning. To start with there will…

Using data in history at Key Stage 3

NB This section of the site is under development as we wait for best practice post-levels assessment to emerge. There…

Literacy and history at Key Stage 3

In recent years there has been a much stronger emphasis in lesson observations on how well particular groups of pupils…

Rationale for your Key Stage 3 history curriculum

The clever people at OneBigHistoryDepartment have come up with a list of questions to ask yourself about your KS3 history…

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…

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…

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….

Teaching Roman Britain for Key Stage 2

Teaching the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain at KS2 Drafting the history content proved highly controversial. Many of…

Forward planning in history at Key Stage 2

This section ties in with the others on prioritising and monitoring and the message is basically the same. You need…

Prioritising your work as history leader

When there is so little non-contact time to lead history, it is crucial that you spend your time wisely. This…

Monitoring in history at Key Stage 2

You will, at some stage, need to monitor standards and the quality of learning in history. The quality of teaching…

Using data to improve history teaching and learning at Key Stage 2

Given that there is no subject-specific data on history at Key Stage 2 this might seem a strange inclusion on…

Raising attainment in history at Key Stage 2

The prospect of raising attainment across the whole key stage is quite daunting, especially when you consider how little non-contact…

Self-evaluation in history at Key Stage 2

With the emphasis of school improvement and OFSTED inspection now firmly placed on self-evaluation this has become one of the…

Personalised learning in history at KS 2

This is certainly one of the key areas to be focusing on in the next few years and lies at…

Gender issues in history at Key Stage 2

It is hard to think of a teaching and learning strategy that one would use with boys. We all know…

Gifted and talented pupils in history at Key Stage 2

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

Key motivational factors in history teaching at Key Stage 2

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

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…

APP in history: where are we now? Some key questions answered

NB. This section is no longer current, so please don’t base your action on its contents. It has been left…

General resources for teaching A level

Resources I have included a section on resources as it is likely that keeping up-to-date with all the recent websites/articles…

How to teach Ancient Greece to Key Stage 2

To all intents and purposes, the ancient Greek planning and all the outstanding lessons fit just as perfectly with the…

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…

Smart Task: KS1 – Assessment in history

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

The Gunpowder Plot: Prove it using a gallery of images

The downloadable PowerPoint provides all the images needed to set up a gallery for a lesson that places pupils in…

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…

Victorian Cities

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

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: –…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Holocaust teaching and need for training for history teachers

Holocaust teaching at KS3: what we should be doing! In addition to advising that history teachers and colleagues in other…

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,…

Keystage history

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