This article is written by Geraint Brown, FHA regarding the Henry on Tour Teacher Fellowship which began in January 2025

History teacher CPD through the HATF 2025: Henry on Tour

It’s been a pleasure to be leading this year’s HA Teacher Fellowship focused on the royal progresses of Henry VIII, which is being run in partnership with the Henry on Tour project.

For the history teachers participating in the fellowship programme, this has been an exciting opportunity to engage with up-to-date historical research, delve into scholarship and examine the published work of the history-teaching community as they develop new approaches and innovative resources for the curriculum and the classroom.

What’s involved in an HA Teacher Fellowship Programme?

• A two-day residential learning from academics and teacher educators.
• An 8-week online programme involving reading and participating in online reflections and discussions.
• Development of a teaching resource to be published on the HA website, which develops participants’ learning from the course and supports other history teachers.

The residential at Hampton Court Palace

It was an inspiring couple of days with Professor Anthony Musson of HRP and Professor Kate Giles from the University of York at HCP. Participants gained amazing insights into how the new research is changing what we know about the period, how the royal journeys were planned & operated, their impact on people and communities visited and how the king and his queens were received.

Sessions included learning about:

• How Henry VIII used royal progresses to see and be seen by his subjects.
• The role of Henry’s queens and how queenship was demonstrated.
• How historians and archaeologists are researching the royal journeys.

The behind-the-scenes tours of Hampton Court were a real treat, finding out about the research and preservation work and exploring areas not usually open to the public.

The online programme

During the 8-week online course, participants have had the opportunity to reflect on their learning during the residential, build on their knowledge and understanding of the history of Henry’s royal journeys, as well as explore developments in history curriculum design and pedagogy.

Highlights of the course included examining:

• differing interpretations of the 1541 progress to York in terms of power, politics and the context of religious change
• The diverse people of progresses and how history teachers have sought to build a more representative curriculum
• The role of the heritage industry, how the past is presented to the public and what approaches teachers take to learning outside the classroom

The HATF participants are currently developing their teaching/teacher resources. There are many exciting developments emerging from the participants’ work, including:

• Events aimed A-Level students and their teachers focused on using source material to investigate the period
• Profiles of diverse characters that inhabited the Tudor world to uncover the hidden lives of Tudor England.
• Enquiries demonstrating how teachers can engage pupils with historical research using archives and archaeology, as well as the local sites Henry visited.

The final resources will be published on the HA website in due course.

Reflecting on the programme so far, it is clear that the participants have gained so much from a sustained, subject-specific course. They have been able to build their substantive knowledge of the Tudor period, as well as their disciplinary knowledge, by working with historians and teacher educators. In addition, they have deepened their knowledge and understanding of a variety of curricular and pedagogic approaches that will enrich their teaching and support the practice of others. They have renewed the connection between the scholarship and their classroom practice.

You can read in depth about the impact of history teachers’ engagement with the disciplinary community in CPD programmes, including the HA Teacher Fellowship, in Dr Katharine Burn’s chapter in Knowing History in Schools.

Applications for the next HA Teacher Fellowship programme on ‘The Caribbean, Monarchy and Legacies of Empire’ are open until 9 June 2025. Details of the programme and how to apply can be found here.

Geraint Brown, FHA