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Keystage history - Imaginative History Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools

Key Stage 1
Expert advice on all aspects of planning and teaching history at KS1 especially assessment , progression, links with literacy, and high quality enquiry-based learning. There are over 50 fully resourced lessons which were graded as outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector as well as numerous imaginative and creative activities to inspire your pupils.

Key Stage 2
Expert advice on all aspects of teaching history at KS2 especially assessment, progression, chronology and high quality enquiry-based learning. There are over 70 fully-resourced lessons which were graded as outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector as well as numerous imaginative and creative activities covering all the main topics which your pupils will love.

Key Stage 3
Expert advice on all aspects of planning and teaching history, especially the crucial areas of assessment and progression and enquiry-based learning. There are over 70 fully resourced lessons which were graded as outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector as numerous imaginative and creative activities covering all the main topics.

Key Stage 4
The jewel in the crown is the outstanding lessons section with over 60 fully-resourced lessons covering all of the most popular GCSE topics, all graded outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector. Better learning rather than simple exam practice lies at the heart of the site’s philosophy but there is also plenty of expert advice on how to improve GCSE grades for all students.

Key Stage 5
This is the only site offering cutting-edge teaching ideas for AS and A2 history. It shows in detail how to help students think more deeply in lessons and to work more independently between sessions. There are some a large number of really creative imaginative strategies on offer. Subscribers love the fully-resourced lessons judged outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector.
About Keystage History
Keystage history is the home of best practice in primary and secondary history teaching and learning. You can totally trust the up-to-date, authoritative, cutting edge, expert advice on issues such as deep dive inspections and you will be inspired by all the creative planning and teaching ideas. Subscribers love the hundreds 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 rationales for curriculum planning, through to raising standards, assessment, progression and inspiring colleagues. This site is a must for any forward-looking subject leader.
Recently Added
- Monday, 11 January 2021 12:45
Teaching Mary Seacole to Key Stage 1
Mary Seacole's inclusion might be regarded by some as tokenism. That would be unfair. The site also features work on Rosa Parks and others. The reason Mary is included is mainly because it helps children to understand that there are...more - Monday, 11 January 2021 12:40
Mary Seacole – How should we remember her?
This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole. In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale's. The focus now shifts to asking two key questions: which was Mary Seacole's greatest achievement ; why is she not remembered as...more - Monday, 11 January 2021 11:25
Mary Seacole – KQ3 – What was Mary’s greatest achievement and how do we know?
The focus here is mainly on the evidence for Mary’s achievement. This is important as she was a more-or-less forgotten figure for 200 years. So how do we know that claims about Mary’s life are true? The skill of finding...more - Sunday, 10 January 2021 12:40
Mary Seacole – KQ4 – How did life change for Mary after the Crimean war?
Pupils create a fortunes graph showing the highs and lows of Mary’s life after the Crimea, identify a key turning point in her fortunes, and then consider ways in which Mary was helped when she fell on hard times.moreObjectives
- Pupils... - Friday, 11 December 2020 11:13
New evidence of Anglo-Saxon mutilations as punishment
Ninth-century England was a bad place to be a criminal, new findings suggest. The skull of an Anglo-Saxon teenager discovered in Hampshire shows that she had her nose and upper lip cut off and may have been scalped too.Written evidence of...more - Thursday, 10 December 2020 11:20
New evidence at Chedworth Roman villa casts new light on Dark Ages
A mosaic at Chedworth Roman villa that was previously believed to date from the fourth century has now been radiocarbon-dated to 100 years later, around 480AD. This suggests, of course, that a sophisticated Roman lifestyle carried on in parts of...more - Wednesday, 02 December 2020 2:39
March 2020 inspection
The history curriculum is currently being reviewed. You and your subject leader know that current planning in history does not emphasise with enough precision what the school intends pupils to know, remember and be able to do by the end...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...moreCommon 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....moreMedium-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
Teaching Mary Seacole to Key Stage 1
Mary Seacole's inclusion might be regarded by some as tokenism. That would be unfair. The site also features work on Rosa Parks and others. The reason Mary is included is mainly because it helps children to understand that there are...moreMary Seacole – How should we remember her?
This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole. In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale's. The focus now shifts to asking two key questions: which was Mary Seacole's greatest achievement ; why is she not remembered as...moreMary Seacole – KQ3 – What was Mary’s greatest achievement and how do we know?
The focus here is mainly on the evidence for Mary’s achievement. This is important as she was a more-or-less forgotten figure for 200 years. So how do we know that claims about Mary’s life are true? The skill of finding...more
Teaching Mary Seacole to Key Stage 1
Mary Seacole's inclusion might be regarded by some as tokenism. That would be unfair. The site also features work on Rosa Parks and others. The reason Mary is included is mainly because it helps children to understand that there are...moreMary Seacole – How should we remember her?
This lesson is the second featuring Mary Seacole. In the first her role was compared with Florence Nightingale's. The focus now shifts to asking two key questions: which was Mary Seacole's greatest achievement ; why is she not remembered as...moreMary Seacole – KQ3 – What was Mary’s greatest achievement and how do we know?
The focus here is mainly on the evidence for Mary’s achievement. This is important as she was a more-or-less forgotten figure for 200 years. So how do we know that claims about Mary’s life are true? The skill of finding...more
Beyond Face Value KQ4 Why did Ford Madox Brown paint this detailed picture of a scene that never existed?
This lesson revolves around a single painting entitled Work, painted by Ford Madox Brown between 1852 and 1865. Using Fastest Finger First pupils are encouraged to explore the full detail of this fascinating painting before role playing the wealth of...moreTen things your KS2 pupils should know about language and communication in the ancient world.
This article should inform your teaching of the Ancient Civilizations topic Imagine a world without writing-without any writing at all: no literature; no news stories; no history even. No tax returns! Well that was the world about 5000 year ago. And...more12 things you need to know about the Mayan civilization before you teach it at KS2
1.In the year 1000 settlements like Chichen Itza were among the largest settlements anywhere in the world. Tikal was thought to have a population as large as 60,000. 2. Chichen Itza is probably the best preserved on any city in the...more
Evaluating websites in history at KS3-5: 3 pieces of top advice
Students are too trusting of what they read on the Internet. Most striking, they implicitly trust Google to verify sources for them--whatever Google lists first must be a good source. As we know, many are there because they paid to...moreWhat can you do at KS3 to make your history curriculum more representative?
In a recent article for the Historical Association ( HA news- Autumn 2020) Jake Subryan Richards offers his advice: " For teachers it is at KS3 where there is most flexibility. Stress the interconnections between Britain and the wider world, supported...moreIndian Mutiny/rebellion of 1857
This lesson is aimed at Y9/GCSE students. It addresses three principal aspects of history teaching:more- How to be thoughtful and discriminating when selecting evidence that is relevant to answering two different questions on the same topic.
- How to explore the...
New evidence of Anglo-Saxon mutilations as punishment
Ninth-century England was a bad place to be a criminal, new findings suggest. The skull of an Anglo-Saxon teenager discovered in Hampshire shows that she had her nose and upper lip cut off and may have been scalped too.Written evidence of...moreEvaluating websites in history at KS3-5: 3 pieces of top advice
Students are too trusting of what they read on the Internet. Most striking, they implicitly trust Google to verify sources for them--whatever Google lists first must be a good source. As we know, many are there because they paid to...moreTerror of the Tramp: Why did vagrancy become such an important issue in Elizabethan England?
GCSE lesson in which students work through a range of differentiated clues to work out 8 reasons which help answer the lessons’ enquiry question before evaluating how well a recent textbook explains it. So often I have seen this lesson taught...more
KSH in numbers
Over 300 fully-resourced, complete lessons (judged outstanding by OFSTED)
Over 200 more stand-alone activities
Expert advice on 40 key aspects of history teaching, for each key stage
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.
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