It’s hard to believe that it was only a year ago that I sat down to write my first Director’s blog. Last year was so exhilarating that it feels like we packed in a lifetime’s worth of fun in those 12 months. Time really does fly when you are having a good time! It was a genuine privilege to meet so many wonderful, inspiring people who are actively engaged in making history more meaningful for our students and an obvious highlight for me was our summer conference at Leeds Trinity:
The SHP Conference was brilliant! I now have so many ideas and resources to incorporate in our schemes of work. Everyone throughout the whole weekend was so lovely and it was such an enjoyable event. (Feedback from the winner of our inaugural Bursary award, which will be available for the next ten years!)
This year we have an even more packed roster of events for the History teaching community:
The 2025 SHP Summer Conference will be taking place on the weekend of 11-13th July and we are very excited to confirm that Professor Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester) will be delivering a keynote alongside pupils from her Colonial Countryside project. Veterans of conference will also be thrilled to know that plans are shaping up for the return of the Saturday Night Extravaganza and Folk singer Mary Hampton will again be joining us, this time as an artist in residence. If you would like to register your interest in the conference and join our mailing list please click here: https://forms.office.com/e/3eit167KPe A call for papers for anyone interested in presenting a workshop will be going out soon so keep an eye out on our emails and social media channels (N.B. we are leaving X and moving to Bluesky – @1972shp.bsky.social, and we would really encourage all of you to join us there!)
Our Developing History Teachers Conference (formerly the New Teachers Conference) will be taking place virtually on Saturday February 1st and we are delighted to confirm that the History Corridor’s Shalina Patel will be our keynote lecturer, alongside workshops for primary and secondary history teachers.
We will be curating two SHP Understanding events this year. Following on from their mind blowing keynote in Leeds, Stafford Scott and Lucy Capes will be leading War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truth and Justice 1948 to the present. The first session will be taking place on Saturday October 12th in Tottenham email d.lyndon-cohen@leedstrinity.ac.uk if you are interested in finding out more. Early in the new year (Saturday January 18th 2025) we will again be working with the British Library to deliver a workshop, roundtable and keynote lectures with the Teaching Medieval Women team in support of the Medieval Women: In Their Own Words exhibition.
And last but by no means least, we are thrilled to be able to launch the Schools History Project’s Yorkshire History Forum at our first event in Leeds (venue tbc) on Thursday November 28th. Workshops for Primary (Judy Clarke and Rachel Ball) and Secondary History teachers (Pete Jackson and Fred Oxby) and a great chance to network. More details to follow.
Our partnership with OCR continues to grow from strength to strength. They have just undertaken a substantial review of the 11-16 curriculum and assessment and to support this OCR has a history consultative forum that meets twice a year in Cambridge in order to discuss the future direction of the subject. It brings together teachers, academics, publishers, and other members of the history community. The next forum will be on Monday 18 November – if you would like to express an interest in attending please email Mike and Rich on history@ocr.org.uk. Other OCR events that you may be interested in include a free ‘Starting to teach GCSE History B’ webinar on 25 September, and a free ‘Exam Review’ webinar on Tuesday 15 October. Additionally, upcoming paid for webinars include Exploring the exams, which is designed to help you develop an in-depth understanding of the assessment expectations, and Enhance your teaching: using stories to create deeper understanding in GCSE SHP history. These will run on 3 December and 17 October respectively, and the cost for each is £99. They’ll be repeated in 2025. All details and booking is on OCR’s Teach Cambridge website or email Mike and Rich on history@ocr.org.uk if you have any questions.
A few other events that you may also be interested in from SHP workshop presenters include a teacher conference in Manchester (November 9th), organised by Alistair Dickens on Russian and Soviet Multicultural history. And following the fantastic SHP Understanding LGBTQ+ Histories event at the British Library they are hosting two consultation events to develop new LGBTQ+ History workshops:
IN-PERSON AT BRITISH LIBRARY: Monday 16th September, 16:00 – 17:30 This consultation will include hearing from the curator of our temporary Queer Lives in Literature display about some of the objects chosen for inclusion. You will then meet some of our other experts and have the chance to discover some of the amazing items from our collections up close. You will help us by providing feedback on which of these items you think should be featured in the workshop and help us decide the learning aims. VIRTUAL: Friday 20th September, 16:00 – 17:30. Contact chloe.dennis@bl.uk or debbie.bogard@bl.uk (who has just published a fantastic blog on oral histories based on the work that she delivered in her Windrush Voices workshop at conference which you can read here).
So as you can see, we have an incredible line up of inspiring events running throughout the year and we want as many members of the SHP family to join us. And talking of our family I am thrilled to be able to announce our new Fellows, firstly Sharon Aninakwa. Anyone who has attended Sharon’s workshops at SHP or HA conferences, or read her work in Teaching History will know what an outstanding contributor to the History teaching world she has been, and we are so happy that she will joining our Fellowship. Our first new Primary Fellow is Ailsa Fidler, who is currently a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Liverpool John Moores University with many years of experience in the primary classroom. I’m looking forward to catching some of Ailsa’s infectious energy! Also joining us as a Primary Fellow will be Judy Clarke, who is another very experienced history teacher and educator, currently working at Leeds Trinity University. Our deepest thanks go to Penelope Harnett who has made an immense contribution as Primary Fellow for many years, and now has moved to the esteemed position of Honorary Fellow. I am also delighted to be able to announce our new Yorkshire Regional Advisors who are going to support the development of our Yorkshire History Forum: Pete Jackson (North), Steve Ablett (West), Fred Oxby (South) and Sasha Smith (East and Lincs). Jen Humphreys will also be joining the team with a roving role (Yorkshire Czar?!!).
I’m going to leave the final words of this blog to Ian Dawson who was kind enough to offer his personal tribute to one of the most inspirational History educators that I’ve been privileged to work with, Helen Snelson, who sadly passed away last month:
Helen was a great friend of SHP, delivering conference workshops on important issues with passion, knowledge and grace, based on her deep understanding of the needs of students and teachers. She believed passionately in the importance of the sense of community amongst history teachers, making an immense contribution through the HA and Euroclio and was respected, admired and loved by history teachers all over Europe. Most importantly, Helen was deeply sensitive to the needs of others and a wonderful model of how to live a good life helping others – and having a bundle of fun and laughter along the way.
