In this final post in our series on using sources in the classroom, Rich Kennett, Head of Humanities at Redland Green School, Bristol, writes on the topic of strong arming your students into using knowledge in their answers to source questions. At my current school the cohort is above national average attainment and many students are very able. Two years ago, however, we noticed that, by and large...
Read More »Sally Thorne, Head of History at Colston’s Girls’ School in Bristol, shares her simple idea for demonstrating the importance of contextual knowledge when assessing a source. My focus for the year was thinking about how to assist students to start recognising sources as evidence, rather than just pillaging them for their information. Struggling to explain the year 8 how important it was...
Read More »In this post, Phil Arkinstall, Head of History at Hardenhuish School, Chippenham, explains his use of verbal rehearsals and a spruced-up inference diagram to help students build stronger arguments. The Verbal Rehearsal My aim was to improve the essay writing of Year 8. The issue was that in previous years students had struggled to write a decent ‘causes of the English Civil War’ essay; they were,...
Read More »In this post, Kate Smee, Head of Humanities at Chipping Sodbury School, asks, can Colin the Centipede help students to understand what the point of using sources is? Rationale: As we come under ever greater pressure to achieve higher grades, the push has been to make source work simpler. We have used the familiar strategies such as writing frames, formulae, deconstructing techniques, mnemonics…etc...
Read More »Matt Bryant, Head of Humanities at Abbeyfield School in Chippenham, shares his strategies for assisting students in accessing the sometimes tricky language presented in written sources. Getting students to critically assess evidence can be a challenge at the best of times but all History teachers know how important this is. By understanding and questioning source material the student becomes the ...
Read More »In the first of a series of blog posts detailing approaches to sourcework, Kate Hawkey, PGCE tutor from the University of Bristol, introduces the group of teachers responsible and the rationale behind the project. In September 2014 a group of history teachers in and around Bristol got together to talk about the challenges and successes of teaching history in their classrooms. They invited the PGC...
Read More »At the SHP summer conference in July 2016, Christine Counsell shared her thoughts on what SLT need to know about history teaching. This powerpoint and associated resources are aimed at enabling heads of history to tackle those difficult conversations with their (probably) non-history-specialist line managers, particularly in the current climate off assessing progress at KS3 using GCSE criteria. Wh...
Read More »An HMI view on ‘Securing Outstanding Leadership in History’ from Michael Maddison (HMI). Michael is Ofsted’s Specialist Adviser for History. See the Plenary PowerPoint
Read More »The plenary lecture by Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge and President of the Royal Historical Society. Read the lecture
Read More »A former colleague told me on hearing I was pregnant with my first son, that being a parent doesn’t make you a better teacher but makes you a more understanding one. Sixteen years later I continue to echo his thoughts and as my children advance towards public examinations, nevermore have I been more appreciative of the challenges our young people face. Faced with the prospect of 26 examinations th...
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