Author: onebighistorydepartment

GCSE and A level, subject leadership, teaching and learning resources

What’s the point of studying history? How can the past make any difference to the present?

This blogpost is for all those of us who find ourselves having conversations with sceptical parents and students. It especially addresses the need to persuade people that studying history can contribute to a career. Dr Katharine Burn, Honorary Secretary of the HA and history teacher educator at the University of Oxford, shares with us some quotations about the impact of historical research taken from the … Continue reading What’s the point of studying history? How can the past make any difference to the present?

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disciplinary knowledge, historical scholarship, reading listening watching, reviews

Stacking the Scholarship Shelf

Thanks to Simon Beale (@SPBeale), Associate Assistant Headteacher and Subject Lead of History & Politics at Vyners School, for this blogpost. Simon is a co-founder of @historybookgrp. I have just returned from Bristol and the 2022 Historical Association national conference. It was my first time attending the event and I was blown away at the wealth of expertise being shared by and with the history … Continue reading Stacking the Scholarship Shelf

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curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, KS3, local history, sources and evidence, teaching and learning ideas, websites and publications

Local history of the Holocaust as a ‘way in’ to broader narratives … and more

In this blogpost Andy Lawrence, Head of History at Hampton School, shares work his department have done that reveals the benefits of researching a local connection to the Holocaust. Not only has it helped integrate local history throughout KS3, it has also provided a ‘way in’ to broader narratives. By engaging the students in the research, some forgotten voices have been ‘heard’. The title of … Continue reading Local history of the Holocaust as a ‘way in’ to broader narratives … and more

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beginning teacher, teaching history

Early Career Teacher: a perspective from 10 years on!

Continuing our posts that are primarily for beginning teachers, Kayleigh Bates (@KMB_History), assistant HoD at William Farr CE xcomprehensive School in Lincoln shares an inspiring reflection – a decade on. I thought it would announce itself with bells on and stop me in my tracks. 10 years…I’ve been teaching for 10 years!  And 9 of them at my current school. It actually only dawned on me during a … Continue reading Early Career Teacher: a perspective from 10 years on!

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curriculum and planning, historical scholarship, KS3, local history

1381 HATF: co-planning across distance

In this blogpost HATF People of 1381 participants, Andrew Sweet (@AndrewSweet4) and Rachel Wilson (@rachelswilson91), share the first part of their work relating to the Fellowship. Their school settings and students are very different, but their aims and curricular intentions are similar, they have planning autonomy and are able to plan with their own students learning needs as a priority. Their model for co-planning is … Continue reading 1381 HATF: co-planning across distance

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beginning teacher, local networks, speaking and listening, teacher knowledge, teaching history

Early Career History Teacher: experience beyond the classroom

This is another blogpost primarily for colleagues at the start of their history teaching careers. Caitlyn Palmer, history PGCE student at the University of York, shares her experience of taking on a project beyond the classroom and how it has supported her developing professional practice. As a History PGCE student training with the University of York, there are certain things that I expected I would … Continue reading Early Career History Teacher: experience beyond the classroom

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GCSE and A level, teaching and learning ideas

Support for GCSE history revision this year

Sally Burnham (@salwilson11) of Carre’s Grammar School, shares plans for GCSE revision plans. Sally is determined to keep her pupils learning more history and not just regurgitating practice questions. She wants them to feel confident and well-prepared for the exams by focusing on their historical knowledge. I am going to start with a caveat… I usually write a blog for OBHD when I have tried … Continue reading Support for GCSE history revision this year

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beginning teacher, curriculum and planning, KS3, subject leadership, teacher knowledge

The return to formal assessment at KS3

Richard Kennett (@richkbristol), of Gatehouse Green Trust in Bristol, shares recent rethinking of KS3 assessment in his school in response to recent discussions on history edutwitter. This may be incredibly obvious to many of you but given the number of tweets I keep seeing about assessment I thought I would share what we have been doing and thinking at my school in Bristol. I am … Continue reading The return to formal assessment at KS3

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curriculum and planning, subject leadership, teacher knowledge

Igniting the spark!

This blogpost from Anne Hooper (@Hoops752) was created as a result of thinking following a professional conversation. At the last meeting of HA Secondary Committee Jason Todd (@JJtodd1966) was talking about the need to listen to children and their craving for knowing about the past. What conversations with a colleague have really made you think this month? What got you into history? I mean what … Continue reading Igniting the spark!

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curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, historical enquiry, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge

A Ukrainian perspective on history teaching about Ukraine in the UK

This document contains the final draft of the conclusions made for a research project undertaken by our Ukrainian friend and history teaching colleague, Irina Kostyuk. She has been part of a project with other Ukrainian history teaching colleagues looking at how history textbooks in Germany, France, UK, Poland and Russia present the Ukrainian past. This detailed work was nearing completion and they hoped to put … Continue reading A Ukrainian perspective on history teaching about Ukraine in the UK

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