How we are trying to design the best KS3 Curriculum ever

Following on from the Cottenham Village College team’s blogpost about their experience with the Ofsted pilot, we are grateful to the team at Fairfield School for sharing with us their thinking and connecting and working journey to revamp their KS3 curriculum… Now that new A Levels and GCSEs are more set up, many of us are turning our attention to the KS3 curriculum. This process … Continue reading How we are trying to design the best KS3 Curriculum ever

Acting out the BIG PICTURE: using geeky scripted role plays at GCSE and A Level

Jen Thornton, Head of History at Loreto Grammar School, shares her solution to teaching ‘the big picture’. She describes her approach and then shares her scripts with us so everyone can use them. Onebighistorydepartment! As an NQT back in 2006, I was blessed to work with a brilliant History department, and there is one thing I took away from that year which is still a … Continue reading Acting out the BIG PICTURE: using geeky scripted role plays at GCSE and A Level

Maps to make WW1 a truly WORLD war

In this post Jason Todd, PGCE Tutor at Oxford University and member of Secondary Committee, gives really helpful advice about how to make your teaching of World War One less limited to the Western Front, and therefore more accurate and respectful to the past, without rewriting everything you do and adding much time to the teaching of the topic… I recently had the privilege of … Continue reading Maps to make WW1 a truly WORLD war

FREE – Historical Fiction list from the HA

The Historical Association Secondary Committee have put together this HA_Historical_Fiction_list for people to use with their students. It is designed to help history teachers to inspire students of all ages in secondary school to read historical fiction for pleasure and also to get better at doing history. Please share it! Historical fiction works very powerfully to help some people do even better at history, including … Continue reading FREE – Historical Fiction list from the HA

In case you’d forgotten about thinkinghistory.co.uk …

Continuing our theme of bringing sources of good quality resoures to the OBHD community, this post features www.thinkinghistory.co.uk. It is a site where the key word is ‘respect’. Respect for people of the past acting without the benefit of hindsight and respect for voices that may not always be heard. Almost everything on it has been created and maintained by former SHP Director Ian Dawson, known … Continue reading In case you’d forgotten about thinkinghistory.co.uk …

Closing the gap for disadvantaged students – can history lead the way?

How can History departments lead the way in closing the progress gap for disadvantaged students? The progress and attainment gaps for disadvantaged students are a source of much soul searching in our profession, and almost the only sure answer we have is that there is no easy solution. However, despite the stubborn and depressing national picture, I can testify from my own experience that there … Continue reading Closing the gap for disadvantaged students – can history lead the way?

A guide to historical enquiry questions in action

A few weeks ago Christine Counsell (@Counsell-C) gave the benefit of her wisdom and her encyclopedic knowledge of Teaching History articles to all of us seeking to understand the role of the historical enquiry question in great history teaching. In case you missed it on @twitter, here it is reproduced with links to the articles…  In @histassoc TH articles, I’m not sure you want articles … Continue reading A guide to historical enquiry questions in action

FREE Religion in Elizabethan England macro inspired by a recent Teaching History article

Thanks to Vicky Bettney (@missvichistory) for sharing with us her macro on Religion in Elizabethan England. Vicky was inspired by reading an article by Hugh Richards (@MisterHistry) in the recent Teaching History 172. Hugh writes about his department’s thinking and work to develop their enquiries at Key Stage Three. They have found that using a ‘macro-micro’ approach has helped students to retain the bigger picture … Continue reading FREE Religion in Elizabethan England macro inspired by a recent Teaching History article

Black Tudors – part 1

On the 29th September a group of us met to discuss ways in which we might develop Miranda Kaufmann’s book Black Tudors for classroom use. We are really keen to share this work with everyone to help provide useful resources. BLACK TUDORS tells the stories of ten Africans. The book traces their paths through the Tudor era revealing rich detail about their daily lives and showing … Continue reading Black Tudors – part 1

Teaching Medieval History? – websites!

There’s no substitute for reading Exploring and Teaching Medieval History – an introduction by Ian Dawson of course. However, knowing how we all need things easily to hand, Henry Walton (@HenryWalton5), Head of Humanities @manorceacademy, has extracted some of the websites and texts it mentions and added others into one handy list. He’s kindly shared it with us… Objects associated with the Conquest: http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/iALiB6XML3gmJQ Archaeology: http://www.archaeology.co.uk/ – website with hundreds … Continue reading Teaching Medieval History? – websites!