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. Our 3,000+ active users 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.
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10 things OFSTED tend to comment on in primary history reports
I have just finished my analysis of all OFSTED’s primary history monitoring reports for the last 2 years. There has been a perceptible shift in...
Columbus – KQ1 – Why do you think we still remember Christopher Columbus, even though he’s been dead for 500 years!
Pupils are in the role of history detectives. They are given 8 progressively revealing, mainly visual, clues in a controlled predetermined order, to elicit ideas...
Columbus – KQ2 – How did Columbus become famous?
Pupils listen to an illustrated description of main episodes Columbus life which they then sequence from the jumbled images provided before creating a whole-class talking...
Columbus – KQ3 – What was Christopher Columbus’s motivation?
Driving at the heart of Columbus ‘ motivation, allows pupils to build on what they have already deduced about his character as well as the...
Columbus – KQ4 – What was life like on board during such a long journey?
This question shifts the focus away from the actions of just one man and adds a colourful dimension to the topic. Pupils have to consider...
Columbus – KQ5 – How have opinions of Columbus changed in the light of new evidence?
In this session the focus is squarely on helping pupils to grasp that people’s opinions of Columbus have changed in the light of new evidence...
Columbus – KQ6 – How and why should we remember him?
Having seen the different ways in which Columbus achievements are still commemorated today, 500 years after his death, pupils have to sift through the arguments...10 key messages about teaching significant people in KS1 history
The most important changes in the way we teach this aspect of the KS1 curriculum are: a. the need to link people through a theme, so that...
Berlin Wall – If relations between the superpowers were improving in the late 50s, why was the Berlin wall built in 1961? A Bone in the throat
This multi-faceted session starts with students having to shape their understanding of the reasons for the building of the Berlin wall in 5 optional ways:-
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Migration – If England was the safest place in Europe for Jews to live in Henry II’s reign, why then did Edward I expel them just 100 years later?
By posing this enquiry question in a slightly paradoxical way, students are encouraged to go deeper in the explanation than simple anti-semitism. Having steered them...
What would your pupils say about getting better at history, when they leave your school?
Recently two university education departments carried out a broad-sweep survey of primary pupils’ experience of history at KS1 and 2 and asked specifically:"What does it...
Excerpt from recent OFSTED report from 2021
As its impossible for you to know what comments OFSTED are making when commenting on history in individual schools, we undertake a systematic trawl from...
6 signs to look for to show your pupils are becoming historically literate
1. Understanding how it is possible to know about the past
Pupils show an understanding of how it is possible to know about the past, even...
How did Guy Fawkes feel before, during and after the night of the 5th November: pupils do the thinking.
Getting children to think about how Guy Fawkes felt, before, during and after the Gunpowder plot. This simple task, resourced by a short PowerPoint presentation (not...
Teaching KS1 pupils to question the ‘FACTS’ about Great Fire; focus on number of deaths
Take the simple assertion (to found in in most books pupils will come across), that only 6 deaths resulted from the blaze.- Do the pupils...
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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.
