History teaching tips
Top 10 Command words for primary history activities
A simple way of ensuring that your pupils are thinking historically is to focus their activities using key command words. Too many tasks at KS1 and 2 involve narrating and…
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How good is your teaching and learning policy?
So primary schools and secondary history departments are happy to vaunt their teaching and learning policies. I applaud the fact that they have investaed time and deep thought into creating one….
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Gender issues when selecting your significant person to teach in history at KS1
There has always been a tendency towards gender stereotyping when selecting which ‘famous’ men and women to teach at KS1. The men are the explorers and engineers, the women the…
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Using living graphs in history at KS4 and 5: don’t let the activity replace the thinking and long-term recall
I have long been a fan of using living graphs, especially to help students appreciate extent and speed of change as well as identifying turning points. Having said that I…
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Using History Hits as a starter at KS3 and GCSE
Nearly all of us have asked pupils to jot down 10 things about a topic as a useful starter to get students focused. It works pretty well, but I have…
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The best way to plan your history topic at KS1 and 2 for September
It may seem odd that I’m still peddling advice on how to plan a primary history topic when schools have been doing this for the national Curriculum for nearly 30…
Read MoreWhat history skills should we be developing?
It is often helpful have a short list of key historical skills which is neither too daunting nor too convoluted. Here is one such list. But where do you think…
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Top Tips for teaching….Stone Age to Iron Age
Stone Age to Iron Age The British Isles has been populated by humans for 750.000 years but only became an island when the ice sheets melted about 8,000 years ago….
Read MoreWritten by Neil Thompson
All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.