keystage 3 teachingWelcome to the section for teaching history at KS3. This offers a full and comprehensive source of good advice that should be seen as a form of ‘virtual adviser’. The issues I focus on mainly are those that preoccupy history teachers in 2020. High on the agenda is the need to sort out a clear rationale for our KS3 history curriculum . Plenty of advice, and examples of what other schools are doing, are given to set you thinking.

If we look beyond the curriculum you will find expert advice on the tricky issue of progression and the problematic one of assessment.  In both cases you are given access to a clear and coherent alternative to the current obsession with now defunct National Curriculum Level Descriptions and their dubious sub-level cousins.

For those seeking an alternative to long over-prepared assessments that take ages to do (and to mark!), there is a coherent package of diagnostic assessments for you to consider. For each task there is a very thoughtful markscheme, examples of pupils’ work and even a commentary which enables you to compare with your own pupils’ work.

Many of you reading this will be subject leaders. You are well-catered for especially in the area of monitoring. You are given shrewd advice on classroom observation, feeding back to colleagues, carrying out pupil interviews and how to conduct an effective work scrutiny. When there is just so much to do when leading a history team, you will be grateful for the excellent advice on prioritisation and forward planning – advice that really works.

For those of you simply seeking inspiration for your own teaching, you will be excited to find that the teaching approaches section contains 100 great teaching ideas, all of which have been developed, tried and tested in successful history departments. On the key issues of enquiry, chronology, and the retention of interpretations, you will find expert advice and inspiring examples.

You will all certainly want to use the outstanding lessons section. There are high-quality lessons on all major topics-usually 6 or 7 per topic.  All these lessons have been validated by an experienced (65 OFSTED history inspections) and highly successful Local Authority history inspector/adviser who has seen history teaching at its best. The good ideas here become great ones when you use them and pass them on!!

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

This is a massive section on the site, and one that you may quarry for years. I have listed here…

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progression in history
Progression in history – looking at specific strands

In this highly-rated post, with really important attachments, we show how it is even more important to get a really…

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KS3 History
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…

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KS3 History
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…

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KS3 History
Using data in history at Key Stage 3

NB This section of the site is under development as we wait for best practice post-levels assessment to emerge. There…

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KS3 History
Literacy and history at Key Stage 3

In recent years there has been a much stronger emphasis in lesson observations on how well particular groups of pupils…

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KS3 History
Rationale for your Key Stage 3 history curriculum

The clever people at OneBigHistoryDepartment have come up with a list of questions to ask yourself about your KS3 history…

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ksh holding
Teaching Pre-1066 thematic topic

What shall we do with Area 6 pre-1066 thematic unit? Here are some questions to ask yourself. Do you look…

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cromwell
Were Cromwell’s actions at Drogheda as brutal as we’ve been led to believe? Ketchup on the walls. SMART TASK KS3

This Y8 courtroom drama blends a study of a couple of original sources, one in facsimile form, with evidence from…

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KS3 History
Teaching KS3 History: Local Study

The current history curriculum makes it mandatory to include a local history study in your KS3 history curriculum. For example:…

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KS3 History
Teaching Thematic from pre-1066

Area 6 of the National Curriculum for history requires that you include the study of an aspect or theme in…

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victorian-ladies
Puzzle Corner 2: Analysing Victorian photographs: the puzzle of the Tredegar patch girls.

Beguilingly simple, but actually quite thought-provoking, this short smart task teaches pupils not to take things at face value –…

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KS3 History
Numeracy in history at Key Stage 3

History’s contribution to numeracy needs to be really carefully thought out or we could waste an awful lot of valuable…

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