International Relations 1890-1945
How can we explain the incredible margin of victory at the referendum for Anschluss in 1938?
How can we explain the incredible margin of victory at the referendum for Anchluss in 1938? Subscribers only: You must be logged in to view this content in full….
Read MoreRotten apple or …. How should we portray Dyer’s motivation in the Amritsar massacre?
This enquiry asks students to look critically at the depiction of the massacre in the film Gandhi as a way into trying to determine the motivation of Dyer. Students are…
Read MoreHow should Germany be treated at the Paris peace conference? KS3 or KS4 task
This short but engaging task precedes any detailed analysis of the terms of the treaty itself. It has four distinct elements: prediction; analysis of a rarely seen German poster; attaching…
Read MoreWhich cartoon best explains the paradox of the Nazi Soviet pact?
The 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…
Read MoreCauses of World War One: problems of evidence. Why is it so difficult to work out who caused the First World War? Smart Task
This is a very short 5 minute warm-up activity to help students get a feel for the partisan sources that historians have to wrestle with when trying to work out…
Read MoreHow well do these cartoons cover the causes of World War One?
In pairs, Y9/GCSE students visit 9 different cartoons posted around the wall. They have to work out: Which cause is being ‘covered’ in each cartoon – sometimes two. Which causes…
Read MoreWhen Italy signed two peace treaties with Abyssinia just 7 years before, why then did Mussolini invade in 1935? Explanation builder
Students are given a short answer to this question that appeared as an answer on the Student Room website. It was not worth 9 marks. Students have to work out…
Read MoreWhy 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? PLEASE NOTE – This…
Read MoreKS3 & 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…
Read MoreSMART TASK: Who said what at Versailles? A fun competitive team game with a serious purpose
This simple activity asks students to think who would be the most likely person to make this statement at the Paris peace conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles. …
Read MoreSMART TASK: At what stage would you say it was obvious that the League of Nations would fail to keep peace?
This short task and associated homework asks students to beat the textbook. First they are reminded of the record of the League. It was not a complete laughing stock as…
Read MoreCould the Treaty of Versailles be justified at the time?
This lesson was taught by Claire Conley-Harper and her excellent team of history teachers at Court Moor School in Fleet, Hampshire. Context This lesson is taught at KS4, as part…
Read MoreWas it the Manchurian or the Abyssinian crisis that spelled the end of the League of Nations?
There is a website that offers GCSE students this essay but at a cost. It is fairly accurately called www.cheat.com. We don’t want to cheat, and we certainly don’t want…
Read MoreWhy did the League of Nations fail?
It’s a piece of cake (F.A.I.L.U.R.E. is not an option) Students have already studied the major episodes in the history of the League up to 1939 and in passing have…
Read MoreInvasion of the Rhineland 1936 – a study in political cartoon analysis
All too often when the students see political cartoons in textbooks they focus on an oval shape in the centre of the picture, often missing peripheral detail and occasionally ignoring…
Read MoreExplaining 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…
Read MoreWhy 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…
Read MoreGCSE Modern World history: Using history of football to interest boys in Inter-war relations 1919-39
If you have ever found it difficult to motivate boys looking at the Inter-war years from 1919-39, why not try using football to tell the story. This quick activity, supported…
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Much of this content is familiar GCSE ground of course. What you will find here are new angles and approaches. You will see from the enquiry into the naval race, that popular topics are given a new twist; students are asked to question bland textbooks assertions. Do all historians really agree that the naval race was a major cause of the war? Clearly not!
















