Key stage 3 (KS3) history teaching including planning, resources and outstanding lessons

Why did Germany lose the Battle of Britain?

If 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 have to explain by the...

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 and KS3. With this simple...

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 landscape). As they are deliberating...

Castle design. Would I lie to you? Fun smart task

This enjoyable session has serious intent: to question some careless assumptions about castle building that often creep into Y7 teaching about castles. The idea is that pupils start to seriously question just how quickly and dramatically things really did change. It works like this. 5 teams...

Was there really a Blitz spirit? Killer evidence. Smart Task

Historians to this day still argue as to whether there was a Blitz spirit or not. Much depends on the evidence they use. This ‘Killer evidence’ Smart Task enables you to discover which evidence the students think is most powerful for each side and which would...

Having lost his parliament, then his throne, why did Charles I have to lose his head?

This diamond-9 prioritising causes activity concludes pupils’ investigation of the reasons for the trial and execution of Charles I. Pupils are presented with 9 ideas which they have to rank so that the most important idea is at the top the to next important below, all...

Market place: Why I didn’t oppose Hitler.

To help pupils to understand why so few people opposed Hitler in the 1930s the use of this market place activity has proved to be really effective. Give every student a different role card and ask them to talk to every other member in the...

Teaching historical significance at Key Stage 3

When there is so much history to study how do students know what is significant? Is everything on the National Curriculum significant? If not why is it there? Are there significant events that are not taught in schools, when other less significant events are? In...

Cromwell a reputation deserved. KS3 Smart Task

This short task focuses on an entry from a website used by lots of people today, mainly in Ireland, to find out about Cromwell’s time there. Pupils are asked to assess whether it is a reliable interpretation of Cromwell’s behaviour in Ireland in the early 1650s....

Industrial Britain KS3 Smart Task on the changes brought about by industrialisation

This task helps pupils to develop an overview of the changes ushered in by industrialisation. The aim is to get pupils to generalise from the particular, identifying which groups of people benefited and which suffered. By dating the cards (there are 32 cards: 7 from...

Early Modern Britain 1500-1750 Smart Task: Editor’s Pencil

A quick overview activity in which pupils have to spot and correct 20 deliberate mistakes. Pupils are given an activity with a summary of the changes that took place in Britain between 1500 and 1750. Unfortunately, the person who wrote it is bad at history. Using their...

Which modern Olympic Games am I? Short KS3 Smart Task

This engaging smart task on the Olympics in the 20th century focuses pupils’ attention on significant individual games as a prelude to drawing out weightier themes. Worksheet and answers in resources section below. A full lesson on What do the Olympic Games tell us about...

Industrial Revolution KS3 Smart Task: The Mystery of the Blackburn Cemetery

Why not start your class investigation into life during the Industrial Revolution with a mystery? Based on a recent discovery of 800 child skeletons in a cemetery in Blackburn, pupils are challenged to work out why almost the graves were for children. What seems to have...

KS3 & 4 The Causes of World War One: The Blame Game

This smart task which can be used from Y9 or for GCSE can be used as a form of diagnostic assessment to see to what extent students can attribute blame for causing the First World War to as many as 6 countries. While the students...

’50’ imaginative learning activities for history at Key Stage 3

History mystery. Why did Ernest join up in 1914, aged just 15?

May 2013: If you are thinking of using drama to enliven your lessons there are some innovative ideas from Neil Bates (who used to be one of my ASTs in Hampshire) written up for the Guardian and linked via Ian Dawson’s Thinking History site, Read more

Teaching history using the Olympic Games KS2 and KS3

We 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 have been judged outstanding by...

Fit for purpose teaching Strategies at Key Stage 3

Personalising learning by establishing what students already know about a topic, before beginning teaching. Case study: Comparing students’ initial perceptions with their end-of-study study views of the First World War To build effectively on what students bring to the classroom, it is always useful to start a...

Explaining why there were so many casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. SMART TASK

This task, suitable for KS3 Year 9 or KS4 students, presents them with something of a conundrum. When the Allies had far more men than the Germans and had fired millions of shells the previous week why was the first day of the Battle of...

Why are these accounts of the Battle of the Somme, written by the same person, so different? SMART TASK

This task, suitable for Y9 in KS3 or KS4, drives at the heart of source evaluation. Students explore two sources, authored by the same journalist, Philip Gibbs, but written 4 years apart. They are asked to spot, and then explain the difference in tone and...

Battalion 101. Why did they shoot? A history mystery

This lesson could be used as part of a Year 9 course or with the Germany module of Y10/11 SHP or Modern World. Students are confronted with moral issues and have to explain what prompted men to kill in the way they did- and the...

What can we learn about the Empire from a Christmas pudding?

This lesson starts with a simple fun activity, working competitively in teams to locate the source of ingredients for an Empire Christmas pudding using a world map to help. Pupils are then introduced to the changing nature of the empire in the inter-war years before...

What made runaway slaves successful?

This short enquiry enables pupils to come up with their own ideas about runaway slaves working from first hand evidence of adverts for the slaves ‘ arrest'. They work in pairs to come up with possible reasons why some slaves were caught and not others...

Free at Last? How far had the Civil Rights Movement come by 1963?

How far have Afro-Americans come in their struggle for equality over the last 160 years? With many schools operating a 2-year Key Stage 3 curriculum, it is important to offer a few quick overviews of topics you’d love to teach in greater depth, but simply...

Smart Tasks – Minted: Telling the story of changing British rulers by exploring 10 significant coins

If you are looking for an interesting way of offering pupils overviews or of looking at the concept of significance, then you might find the accompanying PowerPoint helpful. The theme is the changing nature of how we are ruled and is best tackled at the...

Dread of the lash: How harsh were punishments on slave plantations?

This enquiry-led lesson really does make pupils think as historians. Not only are they introduced to authentic slave punishment records, they also have to test and then raise hypotheses of their own. They have to consider whether individual slave owners were kinder than normal by...

Reasons for the abolition of the slave trade: poacher turned gamekeeper

Diagram showing the dynamic of causation

This lesson turns on a paradox. If the transatlantic slave trade was prospering in 1787, why was it abolished just 20 years later? This more challenging enquiry question forces pupils to go beyond listing and categorising causes to think about the dynamic of change. Which...

How should we film the Middle passage? How accurate are Roots and Amistad?

This varied lesson challenges pupils to use evidence constructively to create their own version of conditions on the Middle Passage. They do this as if advising a film director. In so doing, they have to critically evaluate both film excerpts and written sources. Mathematical skills...

What can we learn about the slave trade from just one poem?

This lesson uses a very simple source to help pupils to get a feel for some of the issues they will be investigating in the weeks ahead in their slavery enquiry. The point of using the poem is that it raises questions and makes assumptions...

Rosa Parks – the true story

This open-ended enquiry explores one of the most abiding stories of American Civil Rights. Students are invited to advise a film director on what actually happened in Montgomery in December 1955. They are introduced to the standard, simplified, textbook version that all young Americans are...

SMART TASK – How did a small country on the edge of North West Europe manage to rule a quarter of the world’s land surface and 400 million people?

This lesson asks an important question that the textbooks rarely cover and comes after students have looked at events in Africa and India in depth. Pupils are presented with an hypothesis that the reason why the British were able to maintain such a large empire...

Smart Tasks: End of Empire: Why did it all end so quickly?

This SMART task ask pupils to classify a number of different smaller reasons why The Empire declined and fell, under four bigger headings. But they are not told what these headings are. This they must work out for themselves. In searching for their own method...

Smart Task: Popping corks? What is the best analogy to explain the causes of the French Revolution

A smart task for Gifted and Talented pupils in Y9. Towards the end of your study of the causes of the French Revolution, why not ask your G&T pupils to consider the best analogy to explain the causes of the French Revolution. Is it popping of corks...

What should we write on Robespierre’s plaque?

In his home town of Arras, the plaque commemorating his achievements has been vandalised and replaced so often that it is clear that people still feel strongly about him. Can pupils create a plaque of their own using just 100 words which would give a...

Execution of Louis XVI

Enquiry question: When the French Revolution started in 1789, few wanted the death of the king or the end of monarchy. But just 4 years later the king’s head has been chopped off. Why? This lesson was taught to a mixed-ability class of 19 which contained...

Smart Task: Evacuation: was it worth it?

Many primary schools look in detail at evacuation in World War Two and you may not want to go over old ground again but there is nothing to stop you taking student’s understanding to a deeper level. In addition, to looking at contrasting interpretations and...

Smart Task: How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two?

Helping pupils to develop overviews of different timescales is central to the Key Stage 3 curriculum. When so few carry on post-14 to study the 20th century (probably only 1 in 5 pupils), it is essential that we help them to gain a clearer understanding...

Smart Task: Was the bombing of Dresden justified?

Should the statue to Bomber Harris be removed?

It is now 20 years since the statue to Bomber Harris was erected in Trafalgar Square. Pupils are asked to consider whether it ought to be removed in light of what happened at Dresden. There are...

Spinning Dunkirk

Rather than simply asking pupils passively to read examples of propaganda surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk they are asked to put a positive spin on it for themselves. Having been told the harsh realities of what happened, they have to work in groups as the...

Why did 15 year-old boys want to join up in 1914?

At the heart of this lesson lies a history mystery. Many of you will have seen something similar in Peter Fisher's book on thinking skills in history. Whilst the core activity remains the same, the refinements added here make so much difference. For here we...

What can we learn about medieval churches from the outside and inside?

This innovative lesson uses the gallery strategy in which pupils compare a range of fascinating colour images to discover what Doom paintings have in common. After annotating and captioning different individual scenes pupils compare their findings with text book summaries to see how much they...

‘100’ Great Teaching Ideas for teaching history at Key Stage 3

This is a massive section on the site, and one that you will quarry for years. I have listed here all the best ideas I have seen in action over twenty years of visiting school history departments and seven years' of OFSTED inspections. To these have...

Progression in history – looking at specific strands

In this highly-rated post , with really important attachments,we show how it is even more important , in this post-levels world of 2016, to get a really strong grasp of progression in all the main concepts. In the general section on progression, the point was...

Assessment for learning in history at Key Stage 3

I have tried to be careful here not to reproduce the mass of material that has been provided by the DCSF as part of the National Strategy and the excellent work of Black and Wiliam in their various publications on the Black Box theme. So...

Forward planning in history at Key Stage 3

There are probably four separate strands that you need to weave into your forward planning. To start with there will be the need to plan for any externally imposed curriculum change. The introduction of the new National Curriculum for history from September 2014 and new...

Using data in history at Key Stage 3

NB This section of the site is under development in Spring 2016 as we wait for best practice post-levels assessment to emerge. There are a number of encouraging systems but most are home-grown and don't necessarily travel well to other schools where the culture might...

Literacy and history at Key Stage 3

Since 2012 there has been a much stronger emphasis in lesson observations on how well particular groups of pupils achieve. Also, with the sharper focus on reporting what makes teaching effective in improving learning, it will be necessary for inspectors to record in evidence forms...

Rationale for the Key Stage 3 history curriculum

Well it could have been worse! Anyone who saw the egregious draft history curriculum of February 2013 will realise what a relief the final version published in September 2013 turned out to be. Gove lost the battle to increase prescription and for all topics to...

Approach to teaching Significant Societies at Key Stage 3

As part of the 2014 history National Curriculum schools are required to teach at least one significant issue or society. Several options are offered by the DfE but you are not bound by these of course. Indeed, I would argue that this is a real...

Teaching local history at Key Stage 3

What does it mean by local? The new curriculum for 2014 makes it mandatory to include a local history study in your KS3 history curriculum. For example:

a depth study linked to one of the British areas of study listed above
a study over time, testing how far...

Why study the Mughal Empire at Key Stage 3?

Reasons for studying this period above the other tempting options are:

The Mughal Empire was the greatest of the Muslim empires of the early modern period.
The Mughal Emperor ruled over an estimated 100 million people at a time when Elizabeth I ruled over a population of...

Key stage 3 History

If 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?

Should the statue to Bomber Harris be removed?