Category: GCSE and A level

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?

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
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

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
GCSE and A level, historical enquiry, sources and evidence, subject leadership, teaching and learning ideas, teaching and learning resources, teaching history

Using archives to enthuse and engage

Thanks to Anne Hooper, member of HA Secondary Committee, for this article explaining how her department refreshed their GCSE course by delving into the archives. Anne explains how using full texts with original images really engages students and helps develop their evidential understanding. She generously shares the resources at the end. Using archive sources is not new to us as history teachers but sometimes it’s … Continue reading Using archives to enthuse and engage

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
curriculum and planning, GCSE and A level, historical literacy, KS3, subject leadership, substantive knowledge, substantive knowledge

Developing substantive thinking: a project to create connections through a KS3 curriculum

Thank you to Sarah Jackson, Head of History at Sawston Village College in Cambridgeshire, for this blogpost sharing some more of the work of the department… As a department we have often talked about the huge impact that cultural literacy has on the achievement of our pupils. Students who don’t have ‘pictures of the past’ find it hard to understand new content as it doesn’t … Continue reading Developing substantive thinking: a project to create connections through a KS3 curriculum

onebighistorydepartment1 Comment
GCSE and A level, historic environment, local history

A Medieval Holiday

We are delighted to feature a blogpost from an A Level student that offers an insight into history learning beyond the classroom and how it raises achievement… While 2021 saw other people spending their ‘staycation’ at campsites or British beaches, one pupil spent several weekends camping inside a castle and on a battlefield! Melissa started doing Living History events in 2019, as part of the … Continue reading A Medieval Holiday

onebighistorydepartment1 Comment
GCSE and A level, local history, reading listening watching, sources and evidence, teaching and learning ideas, teaching and learning resources

See the sites: how to get more of the historic environment into your classroom.

  Thanks to Hugh Richards, Head of History at Huntington School in York and member of Secondary Committee for this blogpost! What do I mean by the ‘Historic Environment?’ At Huntington, we do the OCR B (SHP) GCSE. This includes our choice of historic environment, known as History Around Us, for which we teach a sequence of enquiries that totals about 20 lessons. This has … Continue reading See the sites: how to get more of the historic environment into your classroom.

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
GCSE and A level, historical scholarship, KS3, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge, websites and publications

What do we know? How do we know? What do they say? Knowledge for history teachers and students!

The name Richard Brown is probably unfamiliar to many people reading this blogpost. But Richard taught for many years, was an editor of Teaching History and is a Fellow of both the HA and the RHS. He has been creating websites for many years and the purpose of this blogpost is to make more history teachers aware of them. They are very much worth exploring … Continue reading What do we know? How do we know? What do they say? Knowledge for history teachers and students!

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, GCSE and A level, historical enquiry, local history, local networks, sources and evidence, teaching and learning ideas, teaching and learning resources

Amazing archives: working with local history at GCSE and beyond

Heather Sherman (@HeatherLaws88) teaches history at York College. In this blogpost, Heather persuades us to use local archives to improve our teaching of GCSE topics and to prepare students for further study. Heather argues that local archives challenge, diversify and humanise broader narratives, she explains how to go about contacting your local archives, she generously gives a link to a workbook you can take and … Continue reading Amazing archives: working with local history at GCSE and beyond

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
GCSE and A level, KS3, speaking and listening, subject leadership, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

What could Lemov’s ideas for Remote Learning look like in History?

Thanks to Alex Fairlamb (@lamb_heart_tea), member of HA Secondary Committee and  coordinator of TMHI, for sharing her work with Lemov’s ideas in the history classroom. You might have come to this post through hearing her on Teachers Talk Radio too! (Apologies – to load Alex’s lovely tables in time, they are screenshoted and the links given underneath – Ed!) Doug Lemov’s ‘Teaching in the Online Classroom’ … Continue reading What could Lemov’s ideas for Remote Learning look like in History?

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment
curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, GCSE and A level, KS3, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge

Empowering ourselves to create an anti-racist curriculum: picking off the obstacles one book and one conversation at a time

Thank you to Kate Smee, Head of Humanities at Fairfield School in Bristol for this blogpost. Kate encourages us to keep on thinking and planning and doing what we need to do to teach better history, despite Covid-19. Her twitter handle is on the end of her blogpost.  I am going to start by saying this is not a blog with a definitive road map, … Continue reading Empowering ourselves to create an anti-racist curriculum: picking off the obstacles one book and one conversation at a time

onebighistorydepartmentLeave a comment