ks3 classroom

Our GCSE History resources provide engaging, enquiry-led lessons and teaching materials for Years 10 and 11. Explore GCSE and KS4 history lesson plans, PowerPoints, activities and Smart Tasks covering popular topics including Germany, Russia, the USA, international relations, the Cold War and Medicine Through Time.

Designed by an experienced history education specialist, the resources combine strong subject knowledge with imaginative classroom activities that help students develop the analysis, evaluation, source and interpretation skills required at GCSE History.

You will find that there is a wealth of advice on all aspects of leading history. Because I have spent so much of my professional life improving schools’ GCSE history results I have accumulated considerable knowledge of what works, which I want to pass on.

The 25 history departments I worked with recently showed an average improvement of half a GCSE grade for every student compared to the results two years previously. As you might expect, therefore, the sections on raising attainment and using data have had a massive influence on those departments that have already acted on the advice.

Colleagues I have worked with have kindly contributed short case studies describing how they managed to bring about rapid and substantial improvement. You can’t find this sort of material elsewhere.

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. Likewise with monitoring.

The incredibly useful advice on conducting student, interviews and work scrutiny will prove every bit as helpful as the very practical advice on classroom observation and feeding back to colleagues. If you are looking for guidance on prioritising and forward planning you will find not only advice but an element of interactivity.For many of you, the site will simply prove to be a source of inspiration. You may choose to visit the very popular 50 great teaching ideas, or the equally influential imaginative learning activities, all of which have been tried and tested by many teachers.

GCSE History TopicHistorical focus
American West GCSEExpansion, Native Americans, settlement and the American West
Britain 1890–1975 GCSESocial, political and economic change in modern Britain
Crime and Punishment GCSECrime, policing and punishment through time
Elizabethan & Tudor England GCSEElizabethan society, religion, poverty and government
Germany 1919–1945 GCSEWeimar Germany, Hitler, Nazi rule and opposition
Historic Environment GCSESites, buildings and the historic environment
International Relations 1890–1945 GCSEWorld War One, Versailles, League of Nations and international conflict
International Relations 1945–1990 GCSECold War, superpower rivalry and international crises
Medicine Through Time GCSEMedicine, public health, surgery and medical developments
Migration GCSEMigration to Britain, causes, experiences and impact
Northern Ireland 1968–1999 GCSEThe Troubles, conflict, politics and the peace process
Russia 1905–1990 GCSETsarist Russia, revolution, Lenin, Stalin and the Soviet Union
USA 1900–1990 GCSEBoom, Depression, New Deal, civil rights and social change

Explore our GCSE History Resources

elizabeth I
Elizabeth and the Catholic threat: Elizabethans GCSE Smart Task

Asking questions in history Elizabeth’s policy towards the Catholics: students use a graph to raise their own enquiry questions which are then researched. Working in pairs, students study the graph…

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cas
Historic Environment GCSE: Castles

Castles: 2 Smart Tasks Those of you who are studying the castles topic, maybe as part of the OCR specification, might be interested in two smart tasks on the development…

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hitler
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…

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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…

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Pupil's analogy diagram on the causes of World War Two. Czechoslovakia's head is being served on a plate to Hitler
20 Imaginative products at Key Stage 4

This part of the site offers an initial short list of the best twenty products I have seen in the last couple of years.  Wherever possible the brief description cross-references…

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ks3 classroom
Squeezing the sources dry: how to make the most of source work in GCSE history

The downloadable six page document on answering source-based GCSE questions: matching learning strategies to question type, summarises the best advice from the examination boards all in one place.  It gives…

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9/11
Teaching GCSE History: Terrorism and the Iraq war

This section is included mainly to help teaching of the new OCR’s History Modern World unit entitled A New Age 1948-2005 which deals with terrorism and the Iraq war. Centres…

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met police
Why was the Metropolitan Police Force set up in 1829? Smart Tasks

This activity forms the central spine of a lesson on the reasons for setting up the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829.  Students work in pairs to come up with a…

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smuggling at gcse
Crime and Punishment starter: Smuggling – SMART TASK

This simple smart task uses the rather unusual source of a famous Kipling poem to ascertain what students already know about smuggling and what they need to know. The lesson…

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poacher
Poaching: Need or Greed? A 3 minute starter SMART TASK KS4

Throughout history, people have had different views of poachers. Were they: Starving labourers, snaring game to keep body and soul together, Members of gangs targeting places such as deer parks…

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GCSE SHP Crime and Punishment:
GCSE SHP Crime and Punishment: How and why did Victorian prisons change in the first half of Victoria’s reign

Introduction The Chief Examiner’s report for OCR made the following point: “A number of reports have identified 19C  prison reform as an area of difficulty, because : There was no…

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highwayman
Would you have liked to have been a highwayman? Why would you have stopped?

In this lesson students have to persuade others to become a highwayman and then have to work out why they would have stopped. It is highly active, involving students in…

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met police
Posting punishments in periods: an active approach to creating overviews in crime and punishment

This lesson draws on, and extends, an idea developed by Ian Dawson at Trinity and All Saints College. Students work in groups to post punishment cards in the right period,…

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met police
How effective was the Metropolitan police force and how would we find out?

This enquiry-led activity focuses on students considering the possible evidence base, as well as knowing how to evaluate existing evidence intelligently.  It starts with a humorous cartoon which is slowly-revealed…

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'Geronimo and our policy'
Attitudes of the US government to the native Americans: milking an image for meaning

The simple PowerPoint presents students with an image which has six separate panels for them to investigate. Only by exploring each in turn can the true meaning of the document…

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indian great plains
Why did the Indians lose control of the Great Plains? I want that for my essay SMART TASK KS4

Students work in pairs to answer a GCSE question. They have cards of relevant information to sort through to help prepare their answer. But there is a snag. The questions…

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Mountain Men
Mountain Men – Myth and Reality SMART TASK KS4

Having looked at the role of Indian trappers who had been supplying skins to British, French and Spanish traders on the Missouri river for decades, students now turn their attention…

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Ways of representing the fate of the Native Americans 1840-90
Phases of Native American life on the Plains 1840-1890: What patterns can YOU see?

This lesson comes at the end of work the students have done on the Native Americans and their interaction with white settlers and the army. Students recall key events which…

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John Gast's image
Manifest destiny: beat the textbook/expert caption

Students find this a fun lesson in which they not only consolidate their knowledge of the people who crossed the Plains but also present their understanding of the order in…

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chisholm
How can we explain the rise and boom in the cattle industry?

This enquiry starts with students posing 7 expert historical questions, stimulated by a graph.  They then set about investigating their questions using a set of written clues supported by a…

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19th century surgery
Changes in surgery; late 19th century: a puzzle. Can students use all the contextual clues to work out when it was painted?

This lesson was kindly provided by Barbara Seymour who trialled it when she was Head of History at John Hunt of Everest School, Basingstoke. This lesson follows on from the…

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Who mattered most in medieval medicine? Who would you have on your textbook front cover from 1500?

One way of getting students to think about change and continuity in medieval times is to show them textbooks that were used at the end of the period. Instead of…

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Map of Snow's Broad Street pump
How did John Snow make the breakthrough with cholera?

This lesson focuses on problem-solving. Instead of simply telling students how clever John Snow was, or showing them a video explaining his breakthrough, students have to see if they can…

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Diagram of Four Humours
The impact of the theory of the four humours on medicine: the case of the three tadpoles!

This lesson was conceived, taught and evaluated by Simon Harrison, when he was an Advanced Skills Teacher, Swanmore Technology College. Students have to consider ways of representing people’s beliefs in…

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Jenner or Jesty?
Who deserves to be remembered as the inventor of vaccination: Jenner or Jesty?

During this enquiry students work in two teams one using textbooks and websites to put forward the traditional claim that it was Jenner, the other using a wallet of resources…

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ireland
SMART TASK: Overview of Irish history; a question of perspectives.

This smart task looks at iconic moments in Irish history and then challenges students to think how well each event is known by the Catholic and Protestant communities. 1. Start…

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SMART TASK Key Stage 4: How should we remember the Easter Rising?

Recap This is the concluding lesson on the Easter Rising. If you want a good recap so that students hit the ground running this short Open University film fits the bill very…

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SMART TASK Key Stage 4: Why was Rohm murdered?

If Ernst Rohm was one of Hitler’s closest allies, as you can see in this photo, why then did he have him and other members of the SA murdered in…

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1931 Nazi election poster
Treaty of Versailles: could it possibly be to blame for the Weimar Republic’s defeat nearly 14 years later?

This SMART task revolves around 6 slides on one PowerPoint presentation.  It comes as a penultimate activity prior to students writing an extended answer to the question.  The first slide…

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reichstag fire
SMART TASK: Weighing up the evidence for who caused the Reichstag Fire

This task follows a more open-ended investigation of written sources on the Reichstag Fire.  Most of you will already do this and there is no shortage of source material available. …

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nazi election poster
SMART TASK KS4: Working out what the election posters tell us about Who Voted Nazi

This simple task engages students in thinking for themselves why people voted for Hitler in the 1930s. It uses the simple but visually appealing medium of election posters. Students work…

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Germany 1920-23. Can you spot any pattern in the uprisings during that period?
SMART TASK Key Stage 4: Germany 1920-23; problems facing Weimar

This activity was designed for more able students working towards a Modern World History GCSE in Year 10.  It leads towards the election poster lesson that features on the outstanding…

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triumph of the will
Was Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Triumph of the Will’ a Documentary or Propaganda?

This Y10 lesson provides a very good balance between thought and activity. Having discussed  the differences between a propaganda film and a documentary, students have to find as many as…

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weimar
What were the main threats facing the Weimar Republic?

Students often fail to look carefully at ALL parts of a cartoon, photograph or poster. To help them to take all significant features into account, this image of an election…

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nazi medal
How much did the Gestapo really control people’s lives in Hitler’s Germany?

This enquiry-based lesson acquaints students with a live political controversy using an excerpt from ‘The Nazis: a warning from history’ video to stimulate students to consider how they would set about checking…

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The Seizure of Nazi Power
Did all Germans benefit equally from life under the Nazi regime 1933-45?

This GCSE lesson , which could also work at AS level, uses two principal activities, known as ‘market place’ and ‘spectrum’ to help students to work out how individuals, and…

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suffragettes
SMART TASK: A Suffragette procession: comparing the evidence

Whether you are studying the OCR unit, AQA or Edexcel you should find this activity helpful. The activity builds on an initial idea from the revised Edexcel Teacher’s Guide for…

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vote for women
Why did some women get the vote in 1918? How do YOU see it?

This lesson provides an excellent example of active learning, combining thinking skills and work on interpretations. Students start with one historian’s construct. They have to read the historian’s mind, that…

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Children queuing for their Farthing breakfast ©National Archives
How far did the Liberal government of 1906-14 improve the health of children?

This highly relevant lesson offers a major contribution to the Every Child Matters agenda on staying healthy, as well as picking up the Jamie Oliver’s school meals initiative. After a…

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navy
How serious was the German naval threat before the First World War?

This lesson launches an enquiry in which students work in teams to arrive at their own answer to this question.  Following a very brief introduction, students are introduced to the…

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liberal reforms
How have cartoonists portrayed the Liberals Old Age Pensions reforms?

This lesson takes a familiar cartoon but gives it an original twist. Instead of seeing the cartoon all at once, students see it in four separate parts, which in pairs…

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Charles Booth
Reasons for reliability. How reliable a witness would Charles Booth make in an investigation into living conditions at the end of the 19th century ?

This lesson focuses on encouraging students to evaluate the testimony of just one man, Charles Booth.  It opens with an analysis of the reasons why the Liberal government introduced its…

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Should the statue to Haig be taken down from Whitehall?
Should the statue to Haig be taken down from Whitehall?

This active lesson asks students to work in teams to weigh up the arguments for and against the proposal of the title.  Initially students are either researchers or witnesses, i.e…

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Rasputin's puppets
Downfall of the Tsar

This lesson, taught to a group of poorly motivated Y10 students followed a description of events leading to the February revolution of 1917. The overarching question was ‘Why was the…

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Larger than life Lenin
Lenin the Final Verdict

This lesson makes students active participators in the debate over Lenin’s contribution to the Russian Revolution.  It comes at the end of the students study of the period 1917-24.  Using…

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German cartoon of Stalin analysed image by image. See PowerPoint
Interpreting a political cartoon of Stalin

This lesson revolves around a cartoon annotation and inference activity leading to a detailed and authoritative caption. It concludes the unit of work on Stalin’s purges and is used as…

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Why did the Reds win the Russian Civil War? A history mystery to explain why the reds were able to SLUG it out

This lesson encourages students to take their understanding of the events of the Russian Civil War to a new level by ‘making their own meaning’. They use history mystery cards…

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cuban missile crisis meeting
SMART TASK Key Stage 4 – Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis

With the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile crisis in the news, it is worth spending time reviewing Kennedy’s reputation. Here is a short task to get GCSE students thinking….

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new deal
New Deal or No Deal? How has the New Deal been criticised?

This lesson is an active one in which students co-operate in order to put the best case they can against the New Deal.  It is the first lesson on opposition…

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usa flag
Why was there a boom in the US economy in the 1920s?

This lesson was designed for Y10 students on the C/D borderline who were underachieving and were falling down on the factual recall required. The students were used to being spoon-fed…

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