Outstanding History Lessons At KS2

keystage 2 history

This section comprises two parts: the main one is the series of outstanding, fully-resourced and described, lessons graded 1 by an OFSTED history inspector when they were grading individual lessons. You are given the learning objectives and every activity in sequence all with accompanying PowerPoint presentations and PDF files. The other lesson activities, from parts of lessons, are called smart tasks, exemplifying features of outstanding lessons and, again, all fully resourced.

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – The Anglo-Saxons

Planning the Anglo Saxons topic effectively ensures meaningful, engaging learning that builds pupils’ knowledge and thinking skills. These top tips…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Ancient Greece

A study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world With its emphasis squarely on the…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Local history

Are you going to do more than one study, one period study in depth and one overview, one in Y3…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Thematic post-1066

A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066. Try to make…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – The Vikings in Britain

Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor. There are two key…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Benin / Islam / Maya

Focus on why we are teaching this topic at KS2, often for the first time. Why was this civilization quite…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Roman Empire and its impact on Britain

Whilst it might look as if this is a bigger unit than simply the existing Roman Britain unit, in reality…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Ancient civilisations

For most of you, you will continue teaching Ancient Egypt as before, for 80% of this topic. You MUST give…

Top tips for planning your KS2 history studies – Stone Age to Iron Age

The British Isles has been populated by humans for 750.000 years but only became an island when the ice sheets…

Anglo-Saxon end of unit quiz

The Anglo-Saxons were people who came from parts of modern-day Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands to settle in Britain after…

Tudor Britain knowledge organiser – KS2

You are learning about the Tudors as it was a period of history that helped to shape the Britain we…

Crime and punishment – assessment task

This task is provisional and adopts a different approach to the assessment task on the site you might have tried…

Stone Age to Iron Age – assessment task

Very short diagnostic assessment in which pupils are the teachers. They have to correct a pupil’s description of the Bronze…

Ancient Egypt – assessment task – The afterlife

Key Elements: ideas, attitudes and beliefs This assessment tasks focuses on a single picture. Pupils are asked how the image…

Ancient Greece – assessment task – Life for women in Ancient Greece

This is a Year 6 task which focuses on Key Element 2a : characteristic features of life for men women…

Anglo-Saxons – assessment task – What were the main changes that took place in Anglo-Saxon England?

Focus: significance and change Using 3 images to help you, what were the most important changes that took place in…

Early Islamic Civilisation – assessment task – Why was life in 10th century Baghdad was so significant

Using two contrasting illustrations to help them, pupils have to explain why life in 10th century Baghdad was so significant….

Mayan civilisation – assessment task – What can we tell about Mayan society 1,000 years ago?

Focus skill/concept: Understanding characteristic period features and cultural diversity Using 3 images pupils are set the task to explain what…

Roman Britain – assessment task – interpretations of Boudicca

Focus: interpretations Another Year 4 task in which pupils have to compare two unseen illustrations from books about Boudicca. Having…

Roman Britain – assessment task – Why did the Romans invade?

Focus: causation Short written explanation or, for some, the completion of two speech bubbles. What did the Romans / Claudius…

Roman Britain – assessment task – Roman legacy

Assessing pupils’ understanding of the legacy of the Roman Empire on life in Britain This task is designed to elicit…

Stone Age to Iron Age – assessment task – changes from Stone Age to Iron Age

Focus: sequencing This Y3/4 task is highly visual and entails simple sequencing of unseen images followed by reason why changes…

Tudor Britain – assessment task – What can we learn about the way Elizabeth ruled the country from portraits

Focus: evaluation of sources Children work on an unseen portrait after the teacher has read out the caption which explains…

Victorian Britain – assessment task – How do we know this picture shows Victorian Britain?

Pupils are given artist’s impression of a typical Victorian scene which they have never seen before. They have to identify…

Vikings – assessment task – Depictions of the Vikings

Focus: historical interpretation After looking at similarity and difference between two depictions of the Vikings, pupils then offer reasons why…

WW2 – Assessment task – How do we know that this picture shows England at the beginning of the Second World War?

Focus: characteristic features of life for men, women and children Once again based on a very detailed and colourful artists’…

Vikings – end of unit quiz – KS2

You’ve learned all about the amazing Viking world – from their brave voyages across the seas to their fascinating way…

Strengths and weaknesses of 10 different approaches to local history at KS1 and 2

1. A general history of the community Advantages Can build a sense of place enhancing pupils’ awareness of how the…

Ancient Egypt – end of unit quiz

Congratulations on completing your unit on Ancient Egypt! Now that you’ve explored this incredible ancient civilization, it’s time to put…

Early Islamic civilisation knowledge organiser – KS2

You are studying this topic so that you realise that a thousand years ago Baghdad was the largest city in…

Keeping your teaching of Stonehenge up-to-date

Just when you thought you knew all there was to teach about Stonehenge suddenly a major discovery turns much of…

Ancient Egypt – SMART task – Puzzle corner: Mystery of the pyramids in the desert

This thinking skills task has been designed to encourage pupils to work out plausible answers to the puzzling question, one…

The mystery of why the pyramids were built in the desert is finally solved

Many of you teaching Ancient Egypt in depth as part of a broader topic on ancient civilizations will , no…

Teaching Olympic games in 2024

Are you planning to teach about the Olympic games which are coming to Paris in July 2024? If so you…

Britain during the Second World War knowledge organiser – KS2

In this topic you will learn why Britain went to war and was threatened with invasion by Hitler’s Germany during…

Shang dynasty knowledge organiser – KS2

You are studying the Shang dynasty because it was the first Chinese civilization in ancient times and one for which…

Shang dynasty – KQ1 – Why do YOU think the Shang dynasty MIGHT be important?

Lively introductory session which creatively gets pupils to find things out for themselves and check their understanding using bells and…

Shang dynasty – KQ2 – How different was the Shang society to other civilizations at the time?

Using the expert/envoy technique to research and disseminate information from dossiers on a range of different aspects of Shang society,…

Shang dynasty – KQ3 – What can we tell about the Shang dynasty from the objects that have survived?

Here the focus is on developing enquiry-led learning which is as much about asking valid historical questions as it is…

Shang dynasty – KQ4 – Why has our understanding of the Shang dynasty changed so much in the last 100 years?

Opening up the tricky concept of interpretations of the past, this session enables pupils to grasp that history is always…

Shang dynasty – KQ5 – What was distinctive about the Shang people’s beliefs?

Having used a fast-paced Information Run activity to acquire the key points about Shang religion pupils are set the task…

Shang dynasty – KQ6 – If the Shang dynasty was so well organised why did come to an end after just 600 years and what makes it so special for people today?

Pupils compare 5 different simple textbook explanations, which they colour code, before building their own explanation, based on what seems…

Outstanding Lessons and smart tasks

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