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.
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When outstanding is not outstanding
Ofsted's director of corporate strategy, Luke Tryl, said yesterday: "What we can't tell is if the levels of education in those schools judged outstanding 10 years ago are the same or whether it has changed to become middling, or mediocre...moreAt last OFSTED is seeing sense with its lesson observations
For 7 of the most miserable years of my professional life, I had to carry out OFSTED inspections. Not because I wanted to but because Hampshire wanted me to. I was always deeply troubled by having to make judgements about...more- Key Stage History is an essential resource for subject development, as it provides top quality new teaching resources and first class advice on leading improving departments. It is at the top of my purchase list every year. Neil has gone...more
Why was Athens able to be so strong in the 5th and 6th century BC? KQ3
Part 1 looks at characteristic features of Classical Athens. This is a simple teacher-led explanation using a few PowerPoint clues. Part 2 Looks at the causes of the unlikely victory of Athens over Persia and is a separate full outstanding lesson...moreWhat good history writing at KS2 looks like.
moreOver the next few mont
hs we will be featuring examples of high-quality writing from pupils from Y1 through to Y6. The first , shown here, comes from a Y5/6... KS1 pupils’ work on Great Fire and Florence Nightingale assessed
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You have told us that you need more help on assessment at KS1. So we have now gone beyond principles, suggestions, actual tasks and mark schemes to assessing actual pieces of... 
How have seaside holidays changed? KQ5b what our grandparents tell us
moreThis lesson finds children producing a questionnaire, collecting data from grandparents, feeding data into a database and then drawing conclusions. When they then compare their findings with those of another parallel class they become aware that not all people's...
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
Curriculum models for KS1 history
It seems a logical extension of the advice on long-term planning of the 2014 curriculum to offer you some models of what it might look like. As you know, the devil is in the detail. With the current emphasis firmly...more
KS1 pupils’ work on Great Fire and Florence Nightingale assessed
moreYou have told us that you need more help on assessment at KS1. So we have now gone beyond principles, suggestions, actual tasks and mark schemes to assessing actual pieces of... How have seaside holidays changed? KQ5b what our grandparents tell us
moreThis lesson finds children producing a questionnaire, collecting data from grandparents, feeding data into a database and then drawing conclusions. When they then compare their findings with those of another parallel class they become aware that not all people's...
Going to the Seaside KS1 Assessing your children’s understanding
Just to let you know that we're piloting a new short diagnostic assessment task on going to the seaside 100 years ago, using the picture here as a stimulus. We've worked out a detailed mark scheme which links to national...more
KS1 pupils’ work on Great Fire and Florence Nightingale assessed
moreYou have told us that you need more help on assessment at KS1. So we have now gone beyond principles, suggestions, actual tasks and mark schemes to assessing actual pieces of... How have seaside holidays changed? KQ5b what our grandparents tell us
moreThis lesson finds children producing a questionnaire, collecting data from grandparents, feeding data into a database and then drawing conclusions. When they then compare their findings with those of another parallel class they become aware that not all people's...
Going to the Seaside KS1 Assessing your children’s understanding
Just to let you know that we're piloting a new short diagnostic assessment task on going to the seaside 100 years ago, using the picture here as a stimulus. We've worked out a detailed mark scheme which links to national...more
Why was Athens able to be so strong in the 5th and 6th century BC? KQ3
Part 1 looks at characteristic features of Classical Athens. This is a simple teacher-led explanation using a few PowerPoint clues. Part 2 Looks at the causes of the unlikely victory of Athens over Persia and is a separate full outstanding lesson...more
What can we work out about everyday life in Ancient Athens? KQ2 part 1
There are three distinct parts to Key Question 2 but each centrally based around the need for pupils to use evidence of different forms. The introductory PowerPoint shows 4 contrasting types of evidence: buildings, coins, statues and monuments, and archaeological...moreNew KS2 assessment task: Stone Age to Iron Age
As you know we have been working hard to create a complete set of simple, easy-to-run and easy-to-mark assessment tasks that can be used formatively as well as summatively. Our aim is to ensure that each topic has at least...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
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...
How far did life really change when William the Conqueror became king after the Battle of Hastings? SMART TASK KS3
Pupils have to design a set of stamps to show the 5 biggest changes introduced by William the Conqueror after Hastings, but first they need to place ideas on a spectrum ranging from massive change, through little change to continuity. Starter In...more
Reagan’s ‘tear down this wall’ end of Cold War speech
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood just 100 yards away from the concrete barrier dividing East and West Berlin and uttered some of the most unforgettable words of his presidency: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this...moreFun anachronism-spotting activity set in 1796, for GCSE History of Medicine
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Most anachronism activities used in schools are the rather naff ones put before Y7 pupils in an introduction to What is History. You know the sort of thing: Roman soldiers... 
Transportation; what questions can we raise and answer from the statistics?
This is the first of two lessons on transportation and owes its genesis to an idea from Richard McFahn when an Advanced Skills Teacher for history in Hampshire. It starts by revealing clues connected with the topic, one by one,...more
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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.
