‘How far does the past talked about in your history classroom reflect the diversity of modern Britain?’ This was the question posed recently to PGCE History students at the University of York. Following the posing of this question, the students rolled up their sleeves and put together a short ‘Guide for busy teachers’ that you can find here: Whose histories? – diversity ideas and resources  The guide contains some key principles that the trainees decided upon as they worked. It then has sections with ideas for making existing lessons more diverse and links to online resources to help with this.

This work was inspired by discussions with the Historical Association. At www.history.org.uk with a search term ‘diversity’, you will find a wide selection of resources to give further ideas and help to ensure that your history teaching reflects the pasts of everyone sitting in your classroom.  At this year’s Historical Association conference in May there will be practical sessions by experienced teachers sharing resources to help you teach many diverse histories from migration stories to Partition stories, and from senstive issues in the primary classroom to disability history. There are, of course, many other wonderful sessions too, on topics ranging from macro-micro history to writing paragraphs, and from supporting less able GCSE students to teaching the Cold War. In addition to the sessions, the historians who share their expertise, the chance to talk in depth to examiners and publishers, the fantastic networking with colleagues and a Royal Shakespeare Company theatre trip … what’s not to love?!

We hope you find the resources shared here useful and to see you at conference. Booking is open now and you can follow HA News via @histassoc.