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

Personal reflections on the EUROCLIO conference… let’s learn the lesson from our European colleagues!

Richard Kennett writes… Helen Snelson and I have just returned from the annual EUROCLIO conference in Gdansk. If you don’t know, EUROCLIO is the umbrella organisation for all the national organisations of history teachers across the continent; the HA is a member. There were over 150 history teachers from a huge variety of countries with us in Poland. It was an ace weekend working with colleagues … Continue reading Personal reflections on the EUROCLIO conference… let’s learn the lesson from our European colleagues!

History teachers’ sources of support – part 1 – history SLEs

Some colleagues are fortunate to work in schools where there is strong senior management support for the teaching of history, in departments where there is a long history of high-quality leadership and teaching, and are able to feel confident about curriclum planning for the new Ofsted, teaching and learning to meet the needs of every child and the constant demands of subject knowledge updating. Many … Continue reading History teachers’ sources of support – part 1 – history SLEs

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

Questions to help you review your KS3 curriculum

#OBHD will be featuring a number of blogposts to help with preparation for the new Ofsted framework. In this first post, Rich Kennett, Redland Green School in Bristol, and Hugh Richards, Huntington School in York offer support with KS3 curriculum review. They write… With Ofsted incorporating curriculum into inspections from September and finally with some time off from GCSE and A-Level change many departments are … Continue reading Questions to help you review your KS3 curriculum

Absent from your curriculum?

The HA Secondary Committee want to support history teachers to be able to access the resources they need to make sure that people are not absent from their history curricula. As part of that effort, we will be drawing attention when we can, via this blog, to really good work being done. Nick Dennis is a Director of Studies and a member of the BAMEed … Continue reading Absent from your curriculum?

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