Recently Added Keystage History Content

June 2010 - May 2012 (most recent additions at the top for each Key Stage)

For the 34 items added between January 2010 and May 2010 click here For the 59 items added between May and December 2009 click here.

Please note that In the News and Hot Topics are FREE and updated frequently with only some new Hot Topics listed here. In addition other pages are regularly updated to take account of new material and resources as they become available. Some of the items listed below are available as FREE SAMPLES (see left hand navigation menu).

Keystage 1 Keystage 2 Keystage 3 Keystage 4 NEW Keystage 5

Keystage 1

Smart Task on the Gunpowder Plot: Dear producer (Members Only: October 2011) Pupils predict what a short video clip should show and then evaluate a real example.
Smart Task/Resource from The Gunpowder Plot - Prove it! (October 2011) Full Outstanding Lesson The Gunpowder Plot - Prove it! (Members Only: October 2011) This skilfully differentiated lesson places pupils in the role of detectives that have to find evidence to back up statements that have been made about the Gunpowder plot. They are given responsibility for a range of statements provided as resource cards carefully matched to their learning needs. They work in pairs to find evidence that backs up the statements they have been given. They do this using the gallery approach, whereby 19 key images are placed around the room. Pupils with clipboards and recording sheets set off the hunt down the images that match the statements. With full lesson plan and resources
Outstanding Lesson: Did Grace Darling really carry out the brave rescue on her own? (Members Only: September 2011) In this Year 1 lesson on historical interpretations pupils still image the different versions of Graces's rescue and work out why they are so different.
Planning for a cross-curricular topic on Going to the Seaside (Members Only: May 2011) Free sample page. Fantastic new complete medium term planning showing how the Outstanding Lessons link to the overall topic. There are a lot of new activities and resources too.
Cross curricular medium term plan for new topic Under the Ground: Mary Anning Fossil Hunter in planning section as downloadable resource (Members Only: January 2011) Free sample page for key question 2.
Outstanding Lesson: The Ups and Downs of Mary Anning's life. (January 2011) This lesson moves from sequencing of images from the story, all provided in full colour, to asking children to make a human living graph to show the ups and downs of Mary's life. Great for thinking skills and developing emotional intelligence

Keystage 2

Smart Task: Push or Pull? What were the real reasons why the Saxons invaded? (Members Only: May 2012) A fun thinking skills activity in which pupils infer from visual clues before moving on to analyse a range of influence cards and evaluate a video before coming up with their own explanation.
HOT TOPICS OFSTED’s NEW training resource for primary history subject leaders AND cameo of outstanding primary practice (February 2012)
Outstanding Lesson: What can we learn about the Ancient Greeks by studying the Olympics? (Members Only: January 2012) This lesson goes well beyond simply comparing Olympic events then and now and drives at the heart of what the Olympics meant to the Greeks.
Outstanding Lesson: Get ready - the queen is coming! (Members Only: September 2011) Using the Mantle of the Expert approach pupils have to quickly research the food and entertainment for Elizabeth I impending visit, but be careful her expectations are high! Full resources with PowerPoint and weblinks.
Smart Task: Christmas for children on the Home Front during World War Two. (Members Only: August 2011) This Smart Task help pupils investigate how Christmas for children changed over the course of the war. By looking at food, decorations and presents they quickly broaden their prospective to look at the effects of rationing, blackout and the Blitz.
Outstanding Lesson: What have the Romans ever done for us? A fun, hands-on study of their legacy using the under the cloth strategy. (Members Only: August 2011) In pairs pupils find images which may or may not be part of the Roman legacy. When they have found the genuine ones they then have to design 5 commemorative stamps showing the most significant things the Romans did for us. To conclude pupils read a story to find 10 references to modern-day life which have a Roman origin before writing a story of their own with 10 more references their friends have to find.
Outstanding Lesson: Extending the website on Eric the evacuee (August 2011) A highly engaging lesson in which pupils act as experts to extend the BBC children’s website on evacuation. But to do so they first need to role play a re-union of evacuees in which they reminisce about life during the Second World War. But was evacuation as happy as the BBC’s Eric the Evacuee suggests? Pupils grow to understand the reasons why we have so many photos of smiling evacuees when the reality was sometimes quite different.
Outstanding Lesson: Elizabeth I portraits - things aren’t what they seem (Members Only: May 2011) A really excellent and engaging lesson exploring why Elizabeth 1's portraits seem to show her growing younger as she got older. You will find links to a helpful diagnostic assessment task, mark scheme and samples of KS2 work.
Outstanding Lesson: Henry VIII a question of interpretations. Could you spot Henry VIII in a police line-up? (Members Only: May 2011) This is a really fun lesson which shows children what is meant by historical interpretations in an engaging and accessible way. It appeals to both visual and kinaesthetic learners by using the police line-up approach.
Resource in Medium Term Planning Section: Tudor planning sheet (Members Only: January 2011) Detailed KS2 plan with full set of learning objectives and imaginative learning activities and outcomes linked to the Outstanding Lessons on the site and resources from the other best resource providers.
Outstanding Lesson: Victorian Railways: winners and losers (Members Only: January 2011) A thinking skills activity leading to a role play. Pupils work in groups to predict what people's reactions would be and then act out an enquiry held by a local town.
Smart Task: C an we use a Victorian census to solve the mystery of the famous family in the photo? (October 10) KS2 history lesson in which pupils use a census to work out who the people in the mystery photograph are, the first stage of working on more complex census data later. All they have to go on is a 1891 census and 3 dying words of the only surviving relative!
Is this another Roman villa? (Members Only: September 10) For this lesson pupils are in role as experts to help Tony Robinson’s Time Team decide what evidence they should be looking for.
Children working in Victorian factories: was it as bad as they tell us? (Members Only: September 10) An exciting role play in which pupils give evidence about life for children in Victorian factories. A fun post-it challenge consolidates the key points which are then explored in terms of reliability of the statements. Something for everyone allowing level 2 and level 5 thinking, demonstrated in the differentiated plenary.

Keystage 3

Resource in Inclusion section : If you are focusing on improving your provision for G&T students in KS3 and 4 history you might find the following checklist helpful (Members Only: May 2012)
Outstanding Lesson: Daggers, money bags, clay pipes, scrolls, and torn up maps of France: putting King John on trial using a range of exhibits. (Members Only: April 2012) Active, well differentiated, lesson in which pupils put King John on trial using not only medieval chronicles and modern historians' accounts but also a range of artefacts to bring the subject alive.
HOT TOPIC: OFSTED’s training resource for secondary history teachers (February 2012)
Resource in Progression section: Progression in change and continuity over time at Key Stage 3 (Members Only: January 2012) Recent research into progression in change.
Smart Task: How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two? (Members Only: January 2012) Designed for Key Stage 3 higher attaining Year 8/9 pupils. Helping pupils to develop overviews and gain a clearer understanding of the changing world their grandparents grew up in relating it directly to ‘their’ world today. This task uses the idea of a class tension graph or doomsday clock to look at these changes in perspective. NB This is a set of sequenced ideas for you to work on, not an actual lesson.
Outstanding Lesson: If Henry and Becket were such good friends why did Henry have him killed less than 10 years later? (Members Only: October 2011) An active thinking skills lesson comprising three separate episodes. Having listened to a brief teacher-told narrative, pupils sort events into the right sequence before going on to create their own living graph, then attempt their own explanation before evaluating a short video.
HOT TOPIC also added as a resource in Gifted and Talented Section (October 2011) How well do you serve your G & T students in history? (October 2011)
HOT TOPIC A new OFSTED cameo featuring imaginative KS3 history curriculum planning (September 2011). It focuses on enquiry questions, diversity and use of local history. Well worth a read.
How did a small country on the edge of North West Europe manage to rule a quarter of the world’s land surface and 400 million people? (Members Only: August 2011) Pupils are presented with a hypothesis which they have to challenge and come up with a better explanation of their own. The final product asks them to create a visual display. Includes PowerPoint and 14 influence cards.
Elizabeth I portraits - things aren’t what they seem (Members Only: May 2011) Designed originally for able KS2 pupils this works ideally with middle-end and lower attaining Y8 pupils. A really excellent and engaging lesson (with PowerPoint and other resources) exploring why Elizabeth 1's portraits seem to show her growing younger as she got older.
Outstanding Lesson: English Civil War enquiry - was the last year of the war more about sieges than pitched battles? (Members Only: April 2011) This Year 8 enquiry lesson taught to a group of higher ability pupils invites them to wrestle with a set of statistics from which they have to detect patterns before questioning the validity of the source itself.
Did the Great Fire really end the Great Plague of 1665? (Members Only: January 2011) In this one-lesson enquiry pupils look carefully at statistics and maps in order to challenge received opinion.
2 Assessment tasks both with mark schemes on The Empire and the ending of the Slave Trade (Members Only: October 10)
Advice in Teaching Approaches. Boiling oil and battering rams: teaching medieval castles in Year 7. Constant change or some continuity? Building in some interpretations work. (Members Only: October 10)
Outstanding Lesson: Rosa Parks - the true story (Members Only: October 10). Open-ended enquiry into what really happened on the day Rosa Parks was arrested, in which pupils raise their own questions and follow their own lines of enquiry after a structured start. Fully resourced PowerPoint with original documents and images. Also suitable for KS4.

GCSE

Outstanding Lesson: American West: How can we explain the rise and boom in the cattle industry (Members Only:March 2012) Students are asked to pose historical questions stimulated by a graph, then investigate their questions using a set of written clues supported by a PowerPoint presentation before watching a short video clip to see how well it answers their questions.
Smart Task: 18th century surgery (January 2012) This quick activity asks students to explore the detail in Rowlandson’s cartoon called ‘Amputation’. They score one mark for each of the 10 labelled examples of relevant detail and 3 marks each for good inferences. If they can explain the purpose of the cartoon they score an extra 5. First to 20 wins. Accompanying PowerPoint, supported by teacher notes which give you all the detail you need to impress even the most able students!
Smart Task: The Cuban Missile Crisis: Who was the real winner, Kennedy or Khrushchev? (November 2011)
Smart Task: Overview of Irish history; a question of perspectives. (October 2011) Challenging activity in which students have to predict which iconic moments in Irish history are best known by 16-year-old Protestant and Catholic students in Ireland today. Great scope for rich discussion in which contrasting perspectives are examined and explained. By using the actual results of a recent survey students can see that there is real purpose to the task. They enjoy seeing how close they can get to what their contemporaries in Irish schools today know about their own history.
Smart Task: Working out what the posters tell us about who voted Nazi? (October 2011) Students have to work collaboratively, against the clock to analyse a range of posters produced by the Nazi party in order to work out why people voted for Hitler. How far do the posters really explain the voters' motives? What other evidence would they use? Fully resourced with PowerPoint and teaching notes.
Smart Task: Has the medical progress brought about by the First World War been exaggerated? Optimists v pessimists (Members Only: September 2011) Fully resourced smart task in which students play optimist v pessimist when trying to work out if the contribution of the First World War to the development of medicine has been exaggerated. First students speculate, then they classify information cards before evaluating a short TV programme’s verdict.
Smart Task: How successful was Nazi policy towards women and families? (Members Only: September 2011) Thinking skills spectrum activity that focus students’ on the demands of a typical exam question. They make judgements about the value and weighting of 16 pieces of evidence, placing them on a continuum and taking into account change over time. The most able go on to consider how paradoxical or contradictory the policy seemed to be.
Smart Task: Causes of the Wall Street Crash (Members Only: August 2011) Students use a set of influence cards to see if they can explain the paradox of the Wall Street Crash. If people thought they could get rich quick in the 1920s why did it come to such an abrupt end in 1929? Working on this history mystery, students think through ways of framing an explanation before seeing how their view matches with a that of a TV programme.
Outstanding Lesson: Who deserves to be remembered as the inventor of vaccination: Jenner or Jesty? (Members Only: August 2011) Up to date enquiry in which students investigate the recent interpretation that it was Jesty rather than Jenner who should be remembered as the father of vaccination. Students carry out their own research to substantiate the different points of view before debating. Good use is made of TimelinesTV.
At what stage would you say it was obvious that the League of Nations would fail to keep peace? (Members Only: May 2011) Interesting 'Beat the textbook' activity in which students consider the importance of different turning points in order to create their own diagram to show the relative steepness of the League of Nations' descent into failure in the 1930s. Can they do better than the great Ben Walsh?
Smart Task: Who said what at Versailles? (Members Only: May 2011) A fun competitive team game with a serious purpose.
Smart Task: Why were mining towns such lawless places? (Members Only: May 2011) This is a very straightforward, yet highly effective task with PowerPoint which asks students to distinguish between the generic and the specific, to speculate about possible reasons from clues, to think creatively about historical myths and just as importantly to know how to get full marks on this GCSE question.
Smart Task: How and why did Victorian prisons change in the first half of Victoria's reign: a Webquest leading to a brief filmed presentation (Members Only: March 2011) Short smart task to help students explore the changing nature of prisons between 1840 and 1880: includes ICT dimension using a webquest and Movie Maker.
Smart Task: Weighing up the evidence for who caused the Reichstag Fire (Members Only: January 2011) Stimulating starter, followed by simple task in which students weigh every individual piece of evidence for each of the three main theories as part of preparation for a role play of the trial scene.
Smart Task: Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start? A glass half empty? (Members Only: January 2011) Fun lesson in which half the class plays the optimist and half the pessimist. They think through ideas on the cards provided before selecting the three most clinching arguments for both sides. Task ends with creative activity coming up with suitable sub-headings for parts of chapters dealing with 1918-23 and 1924-29.
Smart Task: Why was there so much opposition to Jenner’s ideas on vaccination in the 19th century? (Members Only: November 10) A short, fun task involving role play with all the instructions on the PowerPoint presentation.
Should the statue to Haig be taken down from Whitehall? (Members Only: October 10) Active lesson with students in roles as researchers and witnesses, analysing and weighing arguments for and against Haig before looking at reasons why historians' views differ and have changed over time.
Outstanding Lesson: Rosa Parks - the true story (Members Only: October 10). Open-ended enquiry into what really happened on the day Rosa Parks was arrested, in which pupils raise their own questions and follow their own lines of enquiry after a structured start. Fully resourced PowerPoint with original documents and images. Also suitable for KS3.
Smart Task: How significant was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the history of Civil Rights? (Members Only: October 10) Quick ranking activity in which GCSE/AS students have to consider the relative significance of 11 possible arguments that have been used by historians who claim that the Montgomery bus boycott was the real start of the Civil Right movement in USA.
Why did the US get involved in the Vietnam War? ? (Members Only: October 10) Three separate short activities help students produce a top grade answer to the question.
Opening up of the Western frontier by the railroads. A history mystery (September 10). American West Mystery surrounding railroads and opening up of the west. Full lesson plan and PowerPoint to help thinking skills.
Reasons for reliability. How reliable a witness would Charles Booth make in an investigation into living conditions at the end of the 19th century? (Members Only: August 10) Great new variant of source evaluation on the Liberal Reforms, focusing on the reliability of Charles Booth's evidence. As students look (and score out of 10) 8 reasons why his evidence might be unreliable, can they arrive at the same scores as 2 top examiners?

A level

Lesson Idea:Why have there been so many different theories as to why Stalin carried out the Terror? (Members Only: January 2011) Varied and active lesson in which students: generate a list of relevant questions; prioritise their own reasons; role-play the arguments used by different named historians, and relate this to recent revised textbook versions used in Russia today.
Smart Task: Was Hitler totally responsible for the Second World War? (Members Only: January 2011) This deceptively simple task comprises four elements: students brainstorm possible ideas; they identify who or what is being referred to in a series of statements about culpability; they then predict what 4 named leading historians might argue and then finally analyse a short 4 page transcript of interviews with Kershaw, Overy etc which feature on Laurence Rees' new website.
Lesson Idea: Edward IV was more successful as a king in his second reign than his first’. How far do you agree with this view?’ (Members Only: November 10)
Downloadable advice: Ten surefire ways of getting better results on A level history source-based papers (Members Only: October 10)
Reasons for the Labour victory in the 1945 general election (Members Only: September 10) causation exercise in which students work through, using cause and evidence cards, until they are ready to compare their summary with one in a sixth form magazine. Do they each place the emphasis in the same place?
Active A level lesson on Mussolini's foreign policy (September 10) in which students work in pairs to create living graphs, one showing changing relationship between Mussolini Britain and France, the other Italy's relationship with Germany. Students compare their version with one in a popular textbook
GCE A2/AS outstanding history lesson on Kritsallnacht (Members Only: September 10) Enquiry based AS A2 history lesson in which students question whether the Nazis take in the world press on Kristallnacht. Students compare newspapers from the time with textbook and website versions and then evaluate a YouTube clip.
INTRODUCTION TO A LEVEL SECTION with articles on: answering specific AS/A2 questions; help with A2 coursework and for subscribers, PDF file with 20 different practical strategies for helping students learn and PowerPoint presentation with 12 effective strategies for teaching.