Assessment at KS3 in History

Thanks to Martyn Bajkowski of Pleckgate HS and HA Secondary Committee for this blogpost. Martyn reports on the work he, and his department, have been doing to improve their KS3 assessment. Like many of you I have carefully considered over recent years what I wanted our approach at assessment to be at KS3 in our department. Following my session at the HA Conference this May … Continue reading Assessment at KS3 in History

How is your history club doing?

Thanks to Sally Burnham, HA and SHP Fellow and history teacher at Carres School in Lincolnshire for this blogpost. This post is packed full of great ideas for History Club activities across all year groups. In September we decided that we wanted to give History Club an ‘update’. During Covid it was many of the ‘nicer’ things of school life that had been put on … Continue reading How is your history club doing?

Corners of foreign fields: ideas for making meaning and memory on a Battlefields Trips

Thanks to Hugh Richards, Head of History at Huntington School in York and leader of the HA’s Subject Leader Development Programme, for this blogpost. Hugh is a leading thinker about how to make history memorable and meaningful for young people, and he has a lot of experience in organising Battlefields Trips. Hopefully you will be inspired to get (back) to the Battlefields. This blog explains … Continue reading Corners of foreign fields: ideas for making meaning and memory on a Battlefields Trips

Cracking the Enigma: a new approach to teaching ALL of World War Two

Thanks to David Bailey, a history teacher at Jerudong International School, Brunei, for this blogpost. David, and his departmental colleagues, have been rethinking their approach to teaching World War Two. He hopes to start a conversation about this. Please get in touch with your ideas and think about contributing a blogpost about how you have wrestled with this issue. How do you tackle World War … Continue reading Cracking the Enigma: a new approach to teaching ALL of World War Two

Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Here, Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, takes her thinking about presentism in the history classroom further. She points out that this tendency to interpret the past through present values and concepts is used by historians as a conceptual scaffold. She challenges us to think about how presentism can help pupils make their own meanings out of history. She builds on David Armitage’s … Continue reading Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, shares work that relates to cultural history/perspective but with a particular focus on the medieval. Her overarching ideas are based on Wineburg’s conception of finding the ‘familiar within the strange’ and the ‘strange within the familiar’ and using this approach she unravels the attitudes, ideas and values of people in the past. She also explores (very carefully) … Continue reading Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

Football Makes History: Using Football in Teaching History and Cultural Heritage in High School

The European Football stories of the project Football Makes History, starting with your local neighbourhood club, can not only excite the football and history fans but in particular create a space where those that are marginalised in European societies are included, feel belonging so that everybody can seek active citizenship. Sport – and particularly football – appeals to millions of Europeans, regardless of their sexual … Continue reading Football Makes History: Using Football in Teaching History and Cultural Heritage in High School

‘Curriculums are not what we put in our plans but what resides in our pupils’ minds’ D. Hibbert (HA Conference 2022)

Thanks to Kate Amery (@KatieAmery) Head of History and Politics at West Kirby Grammar School for this blogpost, which first appeared on her own blog. Kate was inspired by sessions at the HA conference… Some unrevolutionary suggestions for how I get kids to remember more stuff and grasp big ideas. Start with a bridging unit in Year 7 (courtesy of Ms Ball). Give students the opportunity … Continue reading ‘Curriculums are not what we put in our plans but what resides in our pupils’ minds’ D. Hibbert (HA Conference 2022)

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

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