Keystage history - Imaginative History Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools
About Keystage History
Keystage history is the home of best practice in primary and secondary history teaching and learning. You can totally trust the authoritative, cutting edge, expert advice and you will be inspired by all the creative planning and teaching ideas. Subscribers love the wide range of fully resourced history lessons, all judged outstanding by a vastly experienced LA history adviser who has observed over 2,000 primary and secondary lessons and has carried out 60 national inspections for OFSTED. Every aspect of leading history 5-19 is covered in detail, from assessment and progression through to curriculum planning, raising standards and inspiring colleagues. This site is a must for any forward-looking subject leader.
Recently Added
Top 10 Command words for primary history activities
A simple way of ensuring that your pupils are thinking historically is to focus their activities using key command words. Too many tasks at KS1 and 2 involve narrating and describing, What other forms of command words can we use...moreOFSTED looking for clear progression models in history
Central to much of the discussion in OFSTED about focussing more on subjects and the curriculum is the issue of progression. In a recent discussion paper OFSTED wrote that: The progression model in schools was generally less clear for subjects such as...moreFinal KS1 lesson on Scott of the Antarctic nearly ready
Those of you who have taken up the rewarding challege of teaching Scott of the Antarctic as a significant person at KS1 will be pleased to know that the final lesson in our 6-enquiry planner is almost ready. It features...morePowerful personal memories of Remembrance Day
As we all remembered the fallen yesterday, I had particular reason to think of family loss. In the Great War no less than 8 sons from my great-grandfather's family of 14 volunteered and served. This is a record for their...moreGreat ways of developing students’ understanding of provenance at GCSE and A level
When it comes to practical advice on handling the issue provenance in the history classroom there are few people better placed than Ian Dawson to offer you really helpful strategies. You can find these here. What sets Ian's advice apart...moreUseful resource on looking at impact of Elizabeth I’s religious policy on Catholics and Protestants
https://onebighistorydepartment.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/free-religion-in-elizabethan-england-macro-inspired-by-a-recent-teaching-history-article...moreHow did the Viking fleets keep afloat on their voyages?
The unsurprising answer is TAR. The Vikings knew how to produce it on an industrial scale, making batches of 200-300 litres, ten times the amount normally made at that time. Viking ships needed 500 litres of tar -EACH! And they...more
How to get KS1 pupils into history-13 ideas
If you haven't already come across this School Run website offers 13 different ideas for making history come alive with your pupils, including games, story books, visits, history re-enactments etc. What i like about the list is that they...more
Common assessment tasks in history at KS1
It is often difficult knowing how to assess pupils’ historical thinking at KS1. Are we simply testing literacy and /or recall? But what about historical understanding? Faced with this problem, I have been working with two large London primary schools....more
Medium-term planning for history at Key Stage 1
This part of the site contains a dozen detailed fully-developed enquiry-led, key question-driven medium term plans for all the major KS1 history -led topics. They have all been judged to be outstanding by an experienced OFSTED history inspector. All the...more
How will your school commemorate the end of World War One in 2018?
This short advice sheet invites schools to consider how they will commemorate the centenary of armistice day and provides an illustrated PowerPoint presentation offering 8 attractive ideas to set you thinking. This supports two outstanding lessons that feature on the website:more How to get KS1 pupils into history-13 ideas
If you haven't already come across this School Run website offers 13 different ideas for making history come alive with your pupils, including games, story books, visits, history re-enactments etc. What i like about the list is that they...moreExcellent resource on Great Fire of London for KS1
The Museum of London has a wonderful selection of teaching resources on its website including an infographic poster, an interactive story and perhaps best of all aMinecraft version of 1666’s tragic tale. Find all of these here,...more
How will your school commemorate the end of World War One in 2018?
This short advice sheet invites schools to consider how they will commemorate the centenary of armistice day and provides an illustrated PowerPoint presentation offering 8 attractive ideas to set you thinking. This supports two outstanding lessons that feature on the website:more How to get KS1 pupils into history-13 ideas
If you haven't already come across this School Run website offers 13 different ideas for making history come alive with your pupils, including games, story books, visits, history re-enactments etc. What i like about the list is that they...moreExcellent resource on Great Fire of London for KS1
The Museum of London has a wonderful selection of teaching resources on its website including an infographic poster, an interactive story and perhaps best of all aMinecraft version of 1666’s tragic tale. Find all of these here,...more
KS2 Islam -Today is anniversary of start of Building of Baghdad
If you are teaching Islamic civilization at KS2 you might like to watch a short podcast which looks at the start of the building of Baghdad on 31 July 762....more
Brief 10 question diagnostic assessment task for KS2 Ancient Egypt
Pupils have to answer 10 fairly open ended questions for which answers are provided reflecting the knowledge and understanding outlined in the medium term planner. Q1 How can we know so much about a civilization such as Ancient Egypt that lived...more
Planning for teaching Ancient Greece KS2
Outstanding new medium term planning for Ancient Greece, matched to 2016 history national curriculum The main foci throughout this planner are: Ideas, Beliefs, Attitudes (especially the role of women); Way of life (contrasting Athens with Sparta and grasping that ideas flourished...more
So you think your pupils know about Witchcraft in early modern Britain.
1. Were witches burned in English-speaking countries? A. No, they were hanged not burned, because witchcraft was a felony. This was also true in North America. 2. Were millions of witches put to death? A. No, the real number was nearer 50,000 across...more
What can we tell about the Ancient Greeks from a study of their Olympics? KQ5 part 1
moreWe thought we would offer you a range of different cameos showing how the history of the Olympics could be imaginatively integrated into your current teaching.
The teaching activities below have all be tried and tested in schools and...
Teaching the British Empire KS3
In a recent article for the Telegraph, journalist and writer Jeremy Paxman made the following case for teaching the history of the British Empire:more[It] explains so much about who we are now… Imperial history explains both why Britain has a...
Which cartoon best explains the paradox of the Nazi Soviet pact?
moreThe Unholy Alliance: why on earth did Hitler and Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact when they clearly hated each other?
Starting with the historical puzzle of why Stalin and Hitler signed the Non-Aggression pact on August 1939 which so shocked the...GCSE History: Guide to planning and teaching Edexcel 9-1 GCSE
E Lots of thinking has taken place to decide the best way to structure the new Edexcel 9-1 GCSE history course. The rationale behind this plan comes straight from successful classroom practice.. One of my former Advanced Skills Teachers has written this about...moreGreat new KS4 resource on migration : Why were the Jews expelled from England in 1290?
Really helpful resources provided for KS4 teachers of GCSE Migration topic written by University of Oxford academics. This is just the sort of collaboration we need to see. Allows teachers to go beyond the textbook without expecting them to...more
Follow Us
About Me
Neil acts as an educational consultant for history for schools throughout the country. After teaching for 12 years, during which time he ran two departments and was a member of the Senior Leadership, Neil moved into advisory work,
For 18 years, he supported 70 secondary and 450 primary and special schools in Hampshire during which time he carried out over 60 national OFSTED inspections. More recently he has been heavily involved in running about 40 highly acclaimed national training courses a year for primary and secondary history teachers, as well as bespoke whole staff INSET days in primary schools.
