Curriculum Review 2024

In September 2024 the Department for Education launched a consultation on the curriculum asking for students, parents, teachers, employers, leaders and experts to share their thoughts on the current model and what a future curriculum could look like. The Historical Association is preparing a response and we wanted to ask you for your help in enabling your students to give their feedback to us on … Continue reading Curriculum Review 2024

Diversifying the Second World War

This article is written by Philip Arkinstall, Curriculum Leader for History at Hardenhuish School. It compliments an earlier blog post about how to teach the Second World War (https://onebighistorydepartment.com/2023/04/25/cracking-the-enigma-a-new-approach-to-teaching-all-of-world-war-two/) Here I have reflected upon our department’s wider work on rewriting our Key Stage Three curriculum. It sits within a greater appreciation of diverse histories in the Tudor period, British Empire and the First World War. … Continue reading Diversifying the Second World War

Making History Accessible – a new initiative from the HA Secondary Committee

‘SEND’ is a vast topic that encompasses many needs. Added to that, there is a lot of general support for teachers from experts relating to specific needs. But what about specific support for teaching history? How can we make history lessons more accessible for all? The Secondary Committee has put together a new resource called ‘Making History Accessible‘ to help. Back in 2017, Richard Kerridge … Continue reading Making History Accessible – a new initiative from the HA Secondary Committee

Gained time = curriculum time

Thanks to Catherine Priggs, member of HA Secondary Committee, and Geraint Brown, HA Fellow, for this blogpost on how to use time gained in the best possible way for your history curriculum. They provide practical help to guide you in a curriculum review process. Pupils on study leave? Exam season coming to an end? More non-contact time? Now is the perfect time to relax… and … Continue reading Gained time = curriculum time

Raise your voice for subject specific ITE!

Thanks for this blogpost to Martyn Bajkowski who is Head of History at Pleckgate School and a member of the HA’s Secondary Committee. To set out my stall from the start, I am really concerned with the lack of a subject specific focus that I am witnessing in some initial teacher education. I am finding that some pre-service teachers I encounter or observe are not … Continue reading Raise your voice for subject specific ITE!

Helping Y12 tackle the NEA

Thanks to Sally Burnham for this blogpost. Sally is a history teacher at Carres Grammar School, history tutor at the University of Nottingham and incoming chair of the HA Secondary Committee. Here she shares her depth of experience of supporting A Level students to successfully complete the NEA. I love the History NEA! To me, the NEA is the part of the A Level course … Continue reading Helping Y12 tackle the NEA

5 years’ on from ‘Britain and Transatlantic Slavery’: lessons learned and next steps

In 2018, Abdul Mohamud and Robin Whitburn (Justice2History) wrote a blogpost for OBHD entitled ‘Rethinking how we teach about transatlantic slavery’ as they were preparing for the HA Teacher Fellowship ‘Britain and Transatlantic Slavery’. In this blogpost Abdul, history teacher and now working on his PHd as part of the Empire, Migration and Belonging project, returns to the topic to reflect on what we have … Continue reading 5 years’ on from ‘Britain and Transatlantic Slavery’: lessons learned and next steps

Wisdom from Prof Terry Haydn

This very short blogpost is written by Helen Snelson, Chair of Secondary Committee. Having taught history and worked with beginning history teachers for quite a long time, I realise that sometimes it is useful simply to pass on knowledge of something that people might not have come across. Let me do that now with the teaching website of Professor Terry Haydn, Fellow of the HA. … Continue reading Wisdom from Prof Terry Haydn