Keystage history

How did people feel about the coming of the railway?

Victorian Britain – KQ4 – Victorian railways: winners and losers. A thinking skills activity leading to a role play

This active thinking skills lesson asks pupils to consider the likely effect of the coming of the railways on different groups in society before going on to take part in…

Victorian Britain – KQ5a – Going to school in Victorian times: can pupils write a paragraph for a KS1 textbook using photographs alone? SMART TASK Y3-5

This activity puts pupils in the role as researchers for a new book on Victorian schools. They have been commissioned to write a book for key Stage 1 pupils. Therefore,…

Victorian Britain – KQ5b – Victorian poor and the workhouse; what does Martha’s story tell us?

NB This is an additional lesson that does not appear on the planner. This topic couldn’t be more relevant to today. We frequently hear it said that the poor are…

Victorian Britain – KQ5c – Climbing boys enquiry – SMART TASK

This enquiry falls into five parts: A selection of four related enquiry tasks which encourage pupils to explore and then evaluate evidence about the life of a climbing boy. The…

Victorian Britain – KQ6 – The Victorian Era: Dark Age or Golden Age?

This is the concluding lesson on the Victorians. It starts with a plate and a poster commemorating the achievements of Victorian Britain to set it in an international context. Pupils…

What can you do at KS3 to make your history curriculum more representative?

In a recent article for the Historical Association ( HA news- Autumn 2020) Jake Subryan Richards offers his advice: ” For teachers it is at KS3 where there is most…

12 things you need to know about the Mayan civilization before you teach it at KS2

1. The Mayan settlements were among the largest anywhere in the world in year 1000 In the year 1000 settlements like Chichen Itza were among the largest settlements anywhere in…

Full sample recent primary history report January 2020

Pupils in your school thoroughly enjoy learning history. They like the enquiry-based approach you take to learning in the history curriculum, as they learn to ask and answer questions about…

Beyond Face Value – KQ6 – The Blitz. What was photographer Fred’s clever way of beating the censors?

In this fascinating lesson pupils learn how photographers avoided the censors they saw in KQ5 and how the government used certain images of the Blitz as propaganda, even though they…

Plotting your pupils journey in history learning across the school

Just came across this visual depiction of the history curriculum at Springfield School in Hackney and thought I’d bring it to your attention. It has the great advantage of being…

Terror of the Tramp: Why did vagrancy become such an important issue in Elizabethan England?

GCSE lesson in which students work through a range of differentiated clues to work out 8 reasons which help answer the lessons’ enquiry question before evaluating how well a recent…

How close to World War Three has the world come since 1945. A Year 9 enquiry.

Just as the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary, so the world peace it was set up to maintain is yet again under threat. The United States and China…

OFSTED’s view of deep dives in history

Recently Matthew Purves , the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED’s latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools. He makes reference a number of times to what that…

Report on leadership of primary history 2020

One of the key features underpinning the high quality of history learning was that history has a high status throughout the school, recognised by the headteacher. The subject leader attended local network meetings and time…

Analysis of OFSTED reports November 2019- February 2020, with my commentary

Analysis of OFSTED reports November 2019-February 2020, with my commentary By trawling through the most recent pre-Covid reports from November 2019 until February 2020, I have started to form a…

Meeting OFSTED’s criteria for a good history curriculum at KS1 and 2 during extended transition period

Now that schools have an extra year’s grace from OFSTED to refine their curriculum that is being worked on, it is worth reminding ourselves of the key indicators that inspectors…

Deep dive issues: progression and assessment in primary history

One of the features of deep dive subject inspections is that the two hardest areas of a primary history leader’s role are in danger of being painfully exposed. One is…

OFSTED’s early EIF (2019) primary history deep dives

What do the first 3 months’ of reports tell us? Although there is even less detail in the new shorter OFSTED reports than in the previous ones, there are still…

What do deep dive OFSTED inspections look like for history?

What does a new deep dive 2019 inspection look like for history? Basically, there are 6 areas that the history subject leader may expect to be involved in Exploration of…

Intent, Implementation, Impact to be more representative of the BAME in secondary history

Intent What do you want your students in your school to know by the end of KS3? Why is this important? What are the historical topics that are fundamental for…

What does INTENT actually mean for primary history in the new OFSTED Framework for 2019? Building blocks and the Big Picture

What does INTENT actually mean for primary history in the new OFSTED Framework for 2019? Building blocks and the Big Picture Nothing could be simpler: intent is everything up to…

10 things history leaders need to know about the OFSTED 2019 Framework-ARCHIVE

Although this document refers to an earlier Framework it still contains valuable advice. As always, it is important to remember that the essence of goods history teaching at primary level…

Indian Mutiny/rebellion of 1857

This lesson is aimed at Y9/GCSE students. It addresses three principal aspects of history teaching: How to be thoughtful and discriminating when selecting evidence that is relevant to answering two…

Smart task Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole: Who said it? / Who am I?

This simple task encourages children to spot the differences between Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. With a large A4 image of Florence on one side, and Mary Seacole on the…

British Empire – How can we infer so much about the empire from a study of just one map and the person who created it?

This session starts by looking at the information to be gleaned from a well-known 1886 map of the empire and ends with them writing an evaluative expert caption to accompany…

Richard I: Lionheart or loser should we keep his statue – SMART TASK

This short task puts pupils in the role of spin doctors who have to ‘big up’ the reputation of Richard the Lionheart. There is a lobby of people who feel…

Changes for the 2021 GCSE History examination announced by AQA today

AQA GCSE History (8145) Students entering for GCSE History exams next summer will have a choice of studies with one compulsory study. This means that in summer 2021, AQA GCSE…

Medium Term Planner for Thematic unit Beyond Face Value Year 6

This end-of-key stage unit fulfils the post-1066 thematic requirement of the National Curriculum, but it does so in a particularly imaginative way. Instead of looking at just one period, here…

What does good leadership of history look like at KS 1 and 2 according to recent OFSTED deep dive reports

My analysis of all the recent ‘pre-Covid19 ‘ reports reveals the following comments about primary history leadership, both positive and negative. None of you have the time to trawl through…

Post-1066 thematic unit for KS2; Beyond Face Value is now complete- full planner ready . Lessons launched soon

Those of you who have patiently waited for us to clear the copyright for the post-1066 thematic unit linking the Tudors, Victorians and World War Two on the them of…

What is primary history? Have a look at this ‘at a glance’ diagram which encapsulates the essence of the subject

The accompanying diagram attempts to display all the main elements of developing your pupils’ historical understanding, in one place. You’ll see that pupils’ historical knowledge broadens over time as does…

Spectacular Bronze Age finds

Article: BBC Detectorist ‘shaking with happiness’ after Bronze Age find Among the items found this week in Peebles in Scotland were a complete horse harness, preserved by the soil, and…

Benin – KQ1 – Why do YOU think we should study Benin in KS2 history? SMART TASK

After setting Benin in its context of place and time, pupils tour a gallery of images which give them hints as to why Benin might be a significant society, worthy…

Benin – KQ2 – What sort of place was Benin 500 to 1,000 years ago? SMART TASK

Here pupils are introduced to the idea of a society from a distant time about which very little evidence remains. This can be frustrating for pupils who crave a clear…

Benin – KQ3 – What can we tell about Benin society at this time from the images and artefacts that have survived?

Using evidence to study Benin This lesson revolves round four principal activities: Fastest Finger First; Mining for meaning, using an artist’s illustration; Call My Bluff which creatively uses images of…

Benin – KQ4 – What changes took place when the European settlers started trading? Case study of one of the Benin bronzes

The first part of this session revolves around the encounter between indigenous Benin people and the European traders. It then looks briefly at the impact the European settlers had, looking…

Benin – KQ5 – Why did the Victorians get involved in Benin and what were the effects on the Benin people? SMART TASK

Following an intriguing slow reveal of an interesting Victorian photograph showing the capture of the Oda’s palace in Benin, pupils create their own living graph to show Benin’s changing fortunes…

Benin – KQ6 – Should the Benin Bronzes be returned? SMART TASK

This lesson is guaranteed to provoke a lively debate. Armed with all the contextual knowledge they need, and stimulated by some thought-provoking quotations, pupils work in teams to advocate a…

Linking your early civilizations at KS2

There is a real and present danger in KS2 of failing to make links between topics. If we are not careful, topics become silos, seen as separate entities. Much better…

Wizards and scientists:changing views of Stonehenge. History as interpretations and a constant conversation between past and present

One of the harder parts of teaching history at Ks2 is to explain to pupils that history is a construct, and one that changes not only with new discoveries but…

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Written by Neil Thompson