… In which I was inspired by Ruth Lingard’s post to take Michael Riley’s analogy way too far!” As someone with responsibility for the History curriculum at my school, I often worry about the quality of what we do. This is no false modesty, there are aspects of our curriculum that really aren’t that good. Michael Riley’s conceptualisation of curriculum as a garden continues to … Continue reading “The curriculum garden…
Thanks to Sally Burnham (@salburnham), SHP fellow, HA Secondary Committee member, history teacher in Lincolnshire and PGCE tutor at Nottingham University, for this blogpost. Sally reminds us of the importance of teaching local history and gives lots of top tips for including it across the key stages. When their eyes light up and they exclaim; ‘What? That really happened here, Miss?’ I smile to … Continue reading Why should I include local History in my curriculum?
Thanks to Richard Kennett (@kenradical) for this post. Richard has taken up the challenge of Susanna Boyd in Teaching History 175 and been inspired by Claire Hollis (@CitoyenneClaire) to teach better history at A Level. Last year I read two articles that really made me reflect on my teaching. The first was Susanna Boyd’s superb Teaching History article ‘How should women’s history be included at … Continue reading Redressing the balance: trying to make Post-16 history a bit more representative
Ruth Lingard (@YorkClio), a member of Secondary Committee and Head of History at Millthorpe School in York, gives us a refreshingly honest view on curriculum development. It can be easy to get the impression on social media that everything those who post do is marvellous. Ruth takes the long view and thinks about why her department lost track of a coherent curriculum and, at the … Continue reading An honest view of the curriculum planning process
Thanks to Alex Bottomley, Head of Humanities at Trinity Academy in Halifax for this blogpost. This work describes some of the work of the DfE pilot Curriculum Fund project, whose initial findings have just been published. The DfE originally gave £2.4 million to a selected list of 11 lead schools to test the effects of their complete curriculum programmes on reducing teacher workload and improving … Continue reading ‘Lighting fires’: Sparking conversations around the curriculum
The HA is very aware that black history is not a topic that should be confined to a month and is also aware of the way that Black History Month (and other Months) can help to raise awareness and create discussion of the work that needs to be done to make sure the school curriculum is representative. Thanks to Sharon Aninakwa, leader of the Convent of … Continue reading “More of that black history stuff again?” – Yes!
Thanks to Hugh Richards, Head of History at Huntington School for this blogpost. Despite this vision statements appearing across Twitter and in schools all over the country (as well as their being external CPD courses on writing them) there is little published about the thinking behind them. Here Hugh shares the process that he and his team went through to create a vision they are happy … Continue reading Process of constructing a vision statement
Last week the Historical Association was contacted by a history teacher member wanting help. The department they work in is under scrutiny for ‘poor’ results. The advice the department had been given was to differentiate all GCSE lessons into 3 or maybe 4 pathways. The department has mixed ability teaching groups with targets ranging from 2-8. They just knew this didn’t seem like a good … Continue reading Help! – we’re under scrutiny for our poor results…
Thanks to Warren Valentine (@warrenvalentine), head of history and politics at Mayfield Grammar School for Girls, for this blogpost about a day spent thinking about the teaching of historical interpretations. This is an area that has been extensively discussed and theorised about for many years. You can find more help with this tricky concept on the HA website. In June a collection of history teachers … Continue reading Teaching interpretations – maximising potential and avoiding pitfalls!
Thanks to Heather Fearn, Inspector Curriculum and Professional Development Lead, Ofsted for this blogpost… What images come into your head when I say the word ‘Egyptians’? Probably multiple thoughts and ideas of pyramids, pharaohs and hieroglyphics. Or perhaps the word triggers more modern connotations? When I spoke at the Historical Association Annual Conference recently, as you might expect, I felt very assured of the audience’s … Continue reading Making sense of the past: history curriculum and the education inspection framework
OBHD 