This is Mike Maddison’s plenary presentation at the 2015 Inspiring History Conference at the British Museum. In Primary History: Mission Impossible? Mike considers the challenges of planning rigorous and challenging primary history, and offers a range of ideas for inspiring teaching and learning in Primary History. His message is very much Mission Possible! In addition to PowerPoint presentation t...
Read More »‘I forget what I was taught, I only remember what I’ve learnt.’ Dale Banham (Northgate High School, Ipswich) Russell Hall (Kesgrave High School, Ipswich) This article provides a brief synopsis of an action research project between two schools in Ipswich. Our aims have been to promote curiosity, intrinsic motivation and a greater degree of independence amongst our A Level students. We recently shar...
Read More »Well-researched historical fiction can be an excellent way of boosting your subject knowledge and encouraging your students to read around their subjects. Here, some of our new regional advisers recommend their favourites. The Glass Room by Simon Mawer maps the transition of a house throughout three key historical periods in the ever changing Czechoslovakia. The house goes through the Second World...
Read More »This Key Stage 3 enquiry from Alison Kitson focuses on the historical significance of Charles Darwin. By the end of the enquiry it is expected that students will: Know who Darwin was and what he was like Understand why some people at the time found his ideas threatening Realise that people can change the world by big ideas Explore why Darwin is considered significant today Identify what is worth k...
Read More »This activity was devised by Christina Pascoe for the SHP depth study on Germany 1918-1945. It is used as the starter activity for an enquiry on women in Nazi Germany. The lesson in which the activity featured was rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, and was praised for the high level of student interest and engagement. In order to help students understand Nazi views on women, and the diversity of wo...
Read More »Inspiring children to be curious and enthusiastic historians. Penelope Harnett’s plenary presentation at the SHP Primary Conference, 2015. See the PowerPoint
Read More »This guidance from Jamie Byrom (SHP Fellow) provides some useful starting points to help you plan for the 2014 National Curriculum. The resources include: A two-page summary of National Curriculum for History at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, setting out the statutory content and preambles in a bullet-point format and a summary of how the aims of the revised National Curriculum are reflected in the pream...
Read More »This guidance is based on Jamie Byrom’s workshop at the 2012 SHP Conference: I’ve started so I’ll finish. Jamie writes… A lot of attention is now given in schools to the way we start and finish lessons. The language of “starters” and “plenaries” is now almost universally embedded into planning sheets and teachers’ minds. The guidance certainly involve activities that...
Read More »Lesley Ann McDermott shared a novel revision strategy in the TeachMeet session at the 2012 SHP Conference. Lesley Ann uses Spin Powerpoints to make revision sessions more challenge, fun and engaging. Check out her Spin Powerpoint based on crime and punishment past questions in Resource 1. (Press ‘S’ to stop the spin!). In Resource 2 Lesley Ann suggests ideas for other things that you could include...
Read More »Using the example of the Wars of the Roses,Ian Dawson discusses the use of timelines and time-stories to develop an overview of the content of a new module. He argues that an overview is vital because it creates confidence, it creates a context and it starts to give a module a unity. See this discussion on Ian’s free website.
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