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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In many schools primary history curriculum found wanting by OFSTED
Seven of the 33 primaries schools visited by the inspectorate under phase 3 of its curriculum study, published today, had a “complete absence” of curriculum design in humanities. History came in for considerable criticism: “History was also less well organised and...moreOFSTED rails against gimmicks rather than getting basics right
The chief inspector of schools at OFSTED has warned against resting hopes on the latest educational gimmicks and urged us instead to focus on getting the basics right. Amanda Spielman advised specifically against the likes of moreTop 10 Command words when your primary history activities
As well as listing and describing, what other forms of command words can we use to make sure that pupils' thinking is likely to be historical? It may be helpful to ask yourself , When did I last ask my pupils to?...moreTeaching Toys at KS1- new lessons arriving soon
When the site was alunched 10 years ago our focus was on exemplifiying best practice in the harder to teach areas of the National Curriculum. At that stage schools had been teaching the topic of Toys quite successfully and few...moreNew find reveals Roman relationship with the Celts
Yesterday the BBC ran this interesting article on an important find at Vindolanda Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall which challenges some misconceptions about Roman attitudes to Celtic culture. You can read it here...moreWhat does a good KS3 history assessment portfolio look like?
Rarely do we get a chance to look at how things are done in other countries. For that reason I thought that you might like to see how the Australian system have tried to exemplify national standards through annotated...moreHow can I raise standards in learning in history in my primary school? Doing the right things.
One of the hardest jobs for a history subject leader in primary schools is to build up a clear idea of what it is that makes the biggest impact on standards in history. All subject leaders I know work hard...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 should Scott be remembered today? KQ6
Exciting finale to the topic sees pupils analysing different ways in which Scott has been commemorated in the past, coming up with their own 21st century ideas and then completing a diamond-4 prioritising activity before acting as historical advisers to...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...more
How should Scott be remembered today? KQ6
Exciting finale to the topic sees pupils analysing different ways in which Scott has been commemorated in the past, coming up with their own 21st century ideas and then completing a diamond-4 prioritising activity before acting as historical advisers to...moreHow 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...more
Top 10 tasks for effective history subject leaders
We all need reminding of what our core purposes are from time to time as we get caught up in the daily round of frantic activity that is school life today. So i just thought i'd provide a simple list...moreKS2 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
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
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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.
