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
KS1 Star Lesson on The Great Fire
moreWhy did the Great Fire of 1666 burn down so many more houses than other fires in London at that time?
In this exceptional lesson, pupils adopt the role of providers of a new plaque for a monument explaining why the...New Crime and Punishment: post-1066 thematic unit for KS2 history
Originally we had planned to create a detailed post-1066 thematic unit on Crime and punishment. We trailed the idea earlier this year but there were very few requests to look at the draft planner. So we shelved our plans and...more
Spying on the Wright Brothers. KS1 Drawing task
This reconstruction relay - part of KQ3, Why did the Wright Brothers succeed where others had failed - is fantastic fun as well as helping pupils to look carefully at the features of The Flyer, the Wright Brothers 1903 plane. Basically...more
Planner for Britain at War: The Home Front 1939-45
The detailed downloadable planner below has key questions, suggested activities, resources and assessments for teaching The Home Front in World War Two at KS2 and links with the lessons on the site. Although no longer compulsory within the new 2014 National...more
Commemorating the Moon Landing. KS1 task KQ6
moreHow do you think we should remember the first man on the moon on July 21st 1969? What symbol could we use?
Coming at the end of the topic this smart task encourages pupils to show their understanding of why this...
How did things change for Amy Johnson after her famous flight? Smart Task KQ5
moreWas Amy really successful for the rest of her life? A Living graph Smart Task KQ5
The focus here is on the ups and downs of Amy’s life, in the ten years after her famous flight to Australia. Step 1 Give pupils an...
Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?
moreIf Britain was only a few days away from defeat in August 1940 how on earth did she win the Battle of Britain a month later?
This active lesson on the Battle of Britain starts with a puzzling conundrum which pupils...
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 Star Lesson on The Great Fire
moreWhy did the Great Fire of 1666 burn down so many more houses than other fires in London at that time?
In this exceptional lesson, pupils adopt the role of providers of a new plaque for a monument explaining why the...Spying on the Wright Brothers. KS1 Drawing task
This reconstruction relay - part of KQ3, Why did the Wright Brothers succeed where others had failed - is fantastic fun as well as helping pupils to look carefully at the features of The Flyer, the Wright Brothers 1903 plane. Basically...moreCommemorating the Moon Landing. KS1 task KQ6
moreHow do you think we should remember the first man on the moon on July 21st 1969? What symbol could we use?
Coming at the end of the topic this smart task encourages pupils to show their understanding of why this...
KS1 Star Lesson on The Great Fire
moreWhy did the Great Fire of 1666 burn down so many more houses than other fires in London at that time?
In this exceptional lesson, pupils adopt the role of providers of a new plaque for a monument explaining why the...Spying on the Wright Brothers. KS1 Drawing task
This reconstruction relay - part of KQ3, Why did the Wright Brothers succeed where others had failed - is fantastic fun as well as helping pupils to look carefully at the features of The Flyer, the Wright Brothers 1903 plane. Basically...moreCommemorating the Moon Landing. KS1 task KQ6
moreHow do you think we should remember the first man on the moon on July 21st 1969? What symbol could we use?
Coming at the end of the topic this smart task encourages pupils to show their understanding of why this...
Planner for Britain at War: The Home Front 1939-45
The detailed downloadable planner below has key questions, suggested activities, resources and assessments for teaching The Home Front in World War Two at KS2 and links with the lessons on the site. Although no longer compulsory within the new 2014 National...more
Great starter on interpretations of Henry VIII
Working closely with academic authors, in this case Catherine Fletcher, always gives a fascinating insight into what historians want to write and publishers want to sell. This is fertile ground for exploring the question of interpretations with pupils at KS2...more
Outstanding Scheme of Work for Stone Age to Iron Age
This scheme of work, judged outstanding by an OFSTED history inspector now links to all the fully-resourced outstanding lessons and activities making the teaching of this topic completely self-contained. Not only does it ensure that you cover all the significant...more
Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?
moreIf Britain was only a few days away from defeat in August 1940 how on earth did she win the Battle of Britain a month later?
This active lesson on the Battle of Britain starts with a puzzling conundrum which pupils...Great starter on interpretations of Henry VIII
Working closely with academic authors, in this case Catherine Fletcher, always gives a fascinating insight into what historians want to write and publishers want to sell. This is fertile ground for exploring the question of interpretations with pupils at KS2...more
How well do your pupils know Medieval Britain? A short diagnostic smart task called truth detector
Pupils are given 18 statement cards (provided as RS2) about the Middle Ages on Britain to place on the truth spectrum (provided as RS1), labelled ‘made up’ to ‘definitely true’, (which you will need to enlarge when you print to...more
Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?
moreIf Britain was only a few days away from defeat in August 1940 how on earth did she win the Battle of Britain a month later?
This active lesson on the Battle of Britain starts with a puzzling conundrum which pupils...
What was the impact of the Californian Gold Rush 1848-9? GCSE SMART TASK
In this series of short tasks GCSE students predict, infer, gather information and then improve existing explanations of the impact of the Californian Gold Rush. Firstly, students have to use their existing contextual knowledge to predict what the likely consequences might...more
Migration: Online resources
Great new Migration site www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk Our Migration Story: The Making of Britain is an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded collaboration between the Runnymede Trust and academics based at the universities of Cambridge and Manchester. Drawing on the words and research of...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.
