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

franklin d roosevelt
Roosevelt and the 1936 election: can you write his manifesto?

It is the year 1936 and Roosevelt wants to be re-elected.  Students work in groups to create his campaign manifesto pulling together all the work they have done in previous…

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KS4 lesson
Recommended Resources

The main headings focus on the historical background to Bloody Sunday and are organized as below. Division & Peace Ireland’s Bloody Past 1 – Lower Ireland’s Bloody Past 2 –…

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Russian take-over of Eastern Europe
SMART TASK Russian take-over of Eastern Europe, 1946-9: Interpreting a political cartoon.

This simple activity encourages students to look at all the clues the cartoon provides, one at a time.  As they work through them students discuss the nature of irony and…

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stalin cartoon
SMART TASK Key Stage 4 Deciphering a Cold War cartoon, using the slow reveal technique.

The interactive PowerPoint presentation of the famous Stalin’ The Birdwatcher’ cartoon encourages students to add layers of meaning as more and more of the cartoon is revealed. They then have…

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cuban missile crisis meeting
SMART TASK Key Stage 4: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Who was the real winner, Kennedy or Khrushchev?

Coming at the end of a study of the Cuban Missile crisis, students have to consider the ways in which the crisis might have been viewed by the USA and…

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Cartoon used in plenary to test understanding
Who was more responsible for increasing Cold War tension between 1945 and 1949, the USA or the USSR?

This lesson challenges students to prepare a court case against both countries. The case against the USA will be made by one half of the class. That against the USSR…

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vietnam war
Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam? A piece of cake?

In this lesson students focus on moving their understanding of the reasons for US defeat from simply listing and grouping, to prioritizing and linking.  They are shown a variety of…

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Woodrow Wilson
SMART 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. …

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How could you improve Ben Walsh's diagram?
SMART 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…

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TREATY OF VERSAILLES cartoon
Could 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…

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Animation of labels for this cartoon allow understanding to be built progressively
Was 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…

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cake
Why 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…

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rhineland
Invasion 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…

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ks4 classroom
Outstanding Lessons: Key Stage 4

There is probably more material already on the web for GCSE history teaching  at KS4 than for any other key stage.  Much of it is written for students.  This section…

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planning cal
Forward planning in history at Key Stage 4

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…

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How might history targets be shared with students at Key Stage 4?

Target setting has now become a central feature of teachers’ professional life.  With the advent of some pretty robust data for history, we can at last look at likely outcomes…

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ks3 classroom
Progression in history at KS4 – general

Little has been written about progression in history at Key Stage 4, almost as if following the GCSE specification would take care of it. As many of you will know,…

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KS4 lesson
APP in history: where are we now? Some key questions answered

Q1. What is APP? An old idea with a new name? A1. At present the plans to roll out APP across subjects have been stalled, even at KS3 let alone KS4…

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KS4 lesson
Progression in history at KS 4 – skill specific

It is interesting to note that most of the recent focus on progression has been placed firmly on Key Stage 3.  Some of us might say that this is because…

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assessment and progression
Assessment for learning at KS4

This section focuses mainly on peer assessment as I firmly believe that this is the best way forward at KS4.  Not only are the students usually more mature, they have…

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KS4 lesson
Judging students’ work at KS4

Most teachers will be familiar with marking KS4 answers.  It is far less tricky than it used to be, given the publication of GCSE mark schemes and textbooks written by…

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assessment and progression
Assessment tasks in Key Stage 4 history

Now that all the exam boards make past papers available on-line, and that textbooks written by Chief Examiners all now feature typical questions and answers, we are not short of…

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assessment and progression
Principles of assessment in history at KS4

The key issues to be aware of at Key Stage 4 relate mainly to the way students are involved in marking their own work. No longer a secret garden of…

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haig
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…

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battle of the somme
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…

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Andreas Vesalius
Vesalius’ claim to fame. Using the B.A.D formula to prepare for a BBC interview

The BBC is making a documentary on Renaissance medicine in which they have devoted two minutes to the work of Vesalius. Unfortunately, their Vesalius expert is ill and they thought…

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Prehistoric Medicine: Getting your GCSE course off to a great start

This lesson was taught by Mike Herrity when Head of History at Wildern School, Hedge End, near Southampton. On an OFSTED inspection the lead inspector pronounced the lesson quite outstanding…

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Why was this World War One painting censored?

Students studying Britain during World War One, whether it be for AQA, OCR or Edexcel, need to know about censorship. This deceptively simple lesson asks penetrating questions which both engage…

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batallion 101
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…

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hitler propaganda
SMART TASK: Germany 1933-34 Revision Quickie

Which factors played their part in establishing Nazi dictatorship in 1933-4? Lesson or enquiry Historical focus Teaching Germany 1919–1945 Overview and planning Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?…

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KS4 lesson
Views of learners in history at KS4

Over the past six or seven years interest in the pupil or student voice has soared. We are now fortunate in having the data from two major surveys conducted by…

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KS4 lesson
Roles for Learners: Key Stage 4

When so much of Key Stage 4 time is spent making sure that students know enough to answer any GCSE question that might arise, it is tempting not to stray…

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50
’50’ imaginative learning activities for Key Stage 4

We all know that the learning experience for students at Key Stage 4 could be more varied in some schools. Students have told us that, time and again. The lessons…

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KS4 lesson
The learning approach in history at Key Stage 4

Learning in Key Stage 4 history lessons is nearly always good but rarely is it outstanding.  Because we are so aware of the examination requirements and the need to induct…

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creativity
Creativity in Key Stage 4 history

When the demands of the examination, and the results, loom large over our GCSE teaching, you might be forgiven for feeling that the last thing you want to be thinking…

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KS4 lesson
What is history at Key Stage 4?

You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a really crass question.   If you don’t know by now, and you’ve been teaching GCSE for years, what can this possibly…

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renaissance medicine
SMART TASK: GCSE questions on Renaissance Medicine

Using Zones of relevance to answer two possible questions on Renaissance Medicine. Have you ever despaired of GCSE history students who answer the question they want to answer rather than…

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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…

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ww3
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…

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German football team 1935
GCSE 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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medival punishment
Were medieval crimes and punishments as brutal as people think? Two smart tasks

First students work collaboratively to distil from 16 pieces of evidence provided, the ones they think give them the most significant information they need to work into a 6 sentence…

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KS4 lesson
What to look for in your excellent history lessons: Your starter for 12

This is not meant to be painting by numbers. You will see from the detail of the many outstanding lessons featured on this site that there are many and varied…

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