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...
Read More »Christine Counsell, (University of Cambridge Faculty of Education) `Interpretations of history` first gained formal curricular presence in the History NC for England and Wales in 1991. It has never gone away and it returns as a glorious, explicit plural in the 2014 NC. What have history teachers achieved with it? How have they developed it? Why is this tradition precious? Why is it admired ab...
Read More »Dale Banham (Northgate High School, Ipswich) Russell Hall (Copleston High School, Ipswich) `A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special` (Nelson Mandela). Dale and Russell’s workshop at SHP’s 2014 July Conference focussed on a range of practical strategies that help pupils think,...
Read More »Introduction This guidance is based on Christine Counsell’s workshop at the 2008 SHP Conference: Making meaning out of change, continuity and diversity. The workshop focussed on three main questions in relation to change and continuity: 1. What makes for a meaningful and motivating enquiry into change and continuity? 2. How can we balance abstract analysis of speed and pace of change with an explo...
Read More »The big task in ‘King’ Cromwell? is for pupils to research, plan and write their own biography of Oliver Cromwell. These worksheets are designed to support their work by providing a structured writing frame for each chapter. You can download them onto your school intranet and, if appropriate, customise them to suit the needs and abilities of your pupils. The Certificate is a colour version of Work...
Read More »Unit 12 in the SHP publication ‘The Impact of Empire’ (2nd edition), by Jamie Byrom, Chris Culpin and Michael Riley, explores the experiences of Britain’s Commonwealth migrants in the period after the Second World War. Students are helped to understand the development of ethnic and cultural diversity in post-war Britain by engaging with the general narrative of migration and with the stories of in...
Read More »In ‘The Holocaust’, by Ann Moore and Christopher Culpin, (in the SHP series for KS3: “This Is History”), pupils are invited to create their own Holocaust website. Putting it together not only keeps the pupils driving through their enquiry, it encourages them to evaluate the material provided in the book. This “Big Task” is outlined on page 7 of the Pupil’s Book. The idea is that pupils collect evi...
Read More »An enquiry for the end of KS3 This enquiry from Jo Philpott, AST at Dereham Neatherd High School, Norfolk, was specifically designed as a last experience of taught history for a group of Year 9 pupils with Special Educational Needs. At the time of teaching these pupils were disapplied from the KS4 history curriculum. The aim was for the pupils to apply their KS3 history curriculum to their own loc...
Read More »The enquiry by Richard Harris helps pupils to deepen their understanding of the Britain’s transatlantic slave trade by focussing on the life history of an individual. Once pupils have grasped the general features of the triangular trade, they investigate the life history of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an eighteenth-century slave, through extracts from his autobiography. Pupils consider how far his story f...
Read More »Why did Richard Whiting die a terrible death in 1539? This enquiry resulted from Michael Riley’s work with the history department atPreston School in Yeovil. The focus was on helping students to write causal explanations, and the particular context was the English Reformation. The enquiry uses a local case study – the murder of the Abbot of Glastonbury – in order to develop a broader understanding...
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