Building ‘Botheredness’ making reluctant learners care about History
Thanks so much to Carmel Bones for writing this blogpost. Carmel shares with us loads of great strategies for motivating our students. Why not have a go at some of these and also share some of your favourites? #OBHD It might be surprising to discover that History is not everybody’s favourite subject?! And even if it is ‘building botheredness’ is still important to ensure learner … Continue reading Building ‘Botheredness’ making reluctant learners care about History
North of Scotch Corner – a cross country approach to developing explicit explanations
This blogpost describes a really effective school link up as a result of discussions at Teach Meet History Icons back in March 2018. Here, Martyn Bajkowski, HA Secondary Committee, describes how he and Alex Fairlamb, lead coordinator of TMHistoryIcons, worked together to motivate their students to put in effort and develop clarity with their historical explanations. A brilliant idea that is easily copied – thank … Continue reading North of Scotch Corner – a cross country approach to developing explicit explanations
History teachers’ sources of support – part 3 – TMHistoryIcons
Thanks to Alex Fairlamb and Andrew Sweet for this blogpost about the wonderful TMHistoryIcons. What a superb example of subject specialist community in action and the next in our series of blogposts about sources of support for history teachers: History and history teachers are at the heart of TMHistoryIcons, a not for profit organisation, founded by Tom Rogers four years ago. The philosophy of the … Continue reading History teachers’ sources of support – part 3 – TMHistoryIcons
‘Mr Keet on Location’ – creating documentaries as a History Teacher
“What do you do in the holidays?” Thanks to Jacob Keet, History Teacher at Christ’s Hospital in Horsham, West Sussex, for sharing his film clips – getting big stories and concepts across to students in an engaging way. He picks up the important theme of engaging students with history around them and helping them to be curious about how the past connects to the present. … Continue reading ‘Mr Keet on Location’ – creating documentaries as a History Teacher
How undertaking a Teacher Fellowship could change your life – in teaching, at least!
Thanks to Louisa Dunn, Head of History, Westcliff High School for Girls, for writing this blogpost. She’s at @LouisaKDee (and says… “not that I am very active, but I am happy for people to contact me with questions etc.”) A new Historical Association Teacher Fellowship has just been announced on the Korean War and applications are open now . I was lucky enough to be part … Continue reading How undertaking a Teacher Fellowship could change your life – in teaching, at least!
Exhausted and exhilarated! A personal reflection on HA Conference 2019
First-time conference attender and Chartered History Teacher Natalie Kesterton blogs about her HA conference experience. The drive across the Pennines was lovely and sunny; boding well for a great weekend in Chester; my first national HA conference and first time presenting. I went with the aim of ensuring my planning of the new KS3 curriculum is on the right track and of finding more ideas … Continue reading Exhausted and exhilarated! A personal reflection on HA Conference 2019
History teachers’ sources of support – part 2 – local history teacher networks
Continuing our celebration of sources of support for history teachers, this post takes up the theme of local networks. Thanks to Kate Smee, Director of Humanities at Fairfield High School, in the Bristol network for sharing with us how their network has supported her. Please let us know of other such networks so we can connect people to them, support them and inspire more. Local … Continue reading History teachers’ sources of support – part 2 – local history teacher networks
Interpretations – the essential ‘how to’ for history teachers!
Historical interpretations are hard! Students and teachers struggle with the concept. Christine Counsell has been a leading light in thinking about and honing our practice in relation to this concept for many years. She recently posted a summary twitter thread to help newer history teachers to understand what teaching interpretations means and where we have come from. From June 2019 ‘Teaching History’ will have a … Continue reading Interpretations – the essential ‘how to’ for history teachers!
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
Reflections on our Ofsted pilot
In December 2018 our school was approached to take part in a pilot for Ofsted’s new framework from September 2019. This was not an official trial of the whole framework (the focus was the subject-specific curriculum in 2 subjects) and therefore has no official status. We received no judgements or written feedback. The following reflections are merely our own personal reflections on our experience. We … Continue reading Reflections on our Ofsted pilot
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