Keystage history

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….

Roman Britain knowledge organiser – KS2

The arrival of the Romans to Britain and their occupation for over 350 years marks a turning point in the history of Britain. Not only did they transform the landscape…

Stone Age to Iron Age knowledge organiser – KS2

The earliest known humans arrived in these lands around 900,000 years ago. During this time there were huge changes: the ice covering Britain melted; instead of hunting all the time,…

Running timebox – First and foremost

Why Timebox teams? First and foremost, Timebox Teams should be fun. Behind the serious intent of improving pupils’ chronological knowledge lies the belief that constant repetition and familiarity with images…

Timebox – KS1 Pack

Mention the teaching of chronology to most infant teachers and their eyes glaze over. Their experience is that it is like picking up mercury with a fork. One minute the…

Building vocabulary to help pupils’ historical understanding. My 100 top KS2 words

Word lists are all very well but do we carefully plan when words are acquired and then applied in a more sophisticated way across the key stage? It is often…

Some key findings from OFSTED’s English curriculum report that affect history – May 2022

1. SEND While pupils with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) are highly likely to need much more frequent repetition, the general principles from research into effective teaching are just…

Common assessment tasks in history at Key Stage 2

Many colleagues who have been sceptical about assessing history at Key Stage 2 have been won over by this simple approach which aims to give good diagnostic feedback to you…

Assessment for learning in Primary history

Assessment for Learning is much-vaunted and many-faceted. If we break down what it means in its constituent parts, many of you will feel that you do most of that already,…

Principles of good assessment in history at Key Stage 2

As OFSTED reports have pointed out for many years, assessment in history is not strong in most schools and the situation is not really improving. Part of the problem has…

Judging pupils’ work at Key Stage 2

Teachers’ failure to carry out any useful diagnostic, formative or summative assessment in history at Key Stage 2 has come under heavy criticism in all recent OFSTED reports. So we…

Target setting in history at Key Stage 2

With the emphasis that the Primary Strategy places on Assessment for Learning and the sharing of objectives, it would seem that target setting might be the natural next step. Whilst…

General advice regarding progression in history at Key Stage 2

A definitive paper explaining exactly what I think you should be doing in the realms of progression to help ensure that pupils get better at history in a planned way…

Progression by strand in history at KS2: a key element of deep dives

One of the most important tasks that a history subject leader carries out is that of helping colleagues to build progression into pupils’ learning. With Key Stage 2 being the…

Everything you wanted to know about progression in history at KS2 but couldn’t find anywhere!

Progression in history at KS2: part of your preparation for an OFSTED history deep dive Planning for progression in history is difficult, very difficult. You will be hard pressed to…

10 places to go to find out about your local area

1. Go to your library Your local library will nearly always have a local history section that can tell you about the area in which you live over time. Although…

MATs v Council-maintained? What does the evidence tell us about relative performance? May 2022

Council-maintained schools in England outperform academies in Ofsted rankings, according to analysis published on the day the government’s ambitions for all schools to join multi-academy trusts (Mats) are expected to…

A pupil response to KS2 assessment task on women in Ancient Greece

Karl is in Y5 and has been taught in a school where standards are high but progress is slightly below national expectations for the cohort. It appears as if Karl…

KS4 – Migration; Expulsion of the Jews 800 years ago : now a topical issue – May 2022

Those of you teaching about medieval England or the new thematic study on migration may for GCSE might like to share this topic with your students to show that even…

Here’s one i made earlier – The DFE’s plans for a new model primary history curriculum – May 2022

The DfE have been trailing the idea of a model curriculum for history for a while now. They seem to miss the irony of the fact that Gove’s 2014 National…

Taking on history leadership: doing the right things – 10 key steps

Taking on subject leadership can be a daunting prospect, especially if it is your first. When there is so much to do, and so many calls on your limited time,…

What makes a history department outstanding?

The department is an 11-19 comprehensive school serving Hounslow. Approximately 80% of the students are from minority ethnic groups. The proportion whose first language is not English is well above…

OFSTED’s judgements about historical concepts needs challenging

Most of us will question OFSTED’s judgment from time to time, not least because it is highly subjective. Maybe that is better than having a list of features to tick…