So, how do you go about planning a broad and balanced history curriculum? Or to put it another way, how do you create a coherent curriculum plan? Well this has been on our agenda for years now. We have blogged about it before. Curriculum planning is going to be of[…]
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How to plan a broad and balanced history curriculum – part 2
As I said in my previous post, there has been lots of interest in history curriculum planning again. This can only be a good thing. Recently, Ofsted has viewed many of the schools they inspect as exam factories where pupils are taught to pass the test at the cost of[…]
How to plan a broad and balanced history curriculum – part 1
Praise be! In the last few months, there has been lots of interest in curriculum planning again. Recently, Ofsted has viewed many of the schools they inspect as exam factories where pupils are taught to pass the test at the cost of a high-quality education. The latest Ofsted framework focuses[…]
How do we decide what to teach in a curriculum: a blast from the past
So there seems to be some blather recently around the question: how do we decide what to teach in a curriculum? Ofsted This has inevitably be fuelled by talk of Ofsted changing its inspection framework over the coming months to focusing more on the quality of the curriculum and less[…]
Starting a new school (after 25 years) – a short survival guide
I often meet teachers who have this (to me) weird compulsion to get a job, do three years, move on to a new school, three years, move…and repeat. In the interests of full disclosure, I am not one of these people. I got a job in the mid-90s and[…]
Ten Top Tips for History Exam Revision
With exams looming, these activities and techniques can help history teachers ensure their students are geared up and ready to perform under pressure.
A key gap analysis tool for the GCSE history classroom
HistoryHomework.com has been designed to help you raise standards in your GCSE classes, dramatically cut your workload and provide you with crucial information about your individual students’ progress. Much thought and planning have gone into creating an assessment for learning tool that works for the GCSE history teacher. Unlike some[…]
www.historyhomework.com is live
www.historyhomework.com is live and ready for you to access. You can use it to help your students revise all of the content and many of the skills required for the most popular Edexcel 9-1 GCSE courses. AQA will be launching in September. To find out which topics are covered[…]
Enquiry Questions at Key Stage 3: A necessity not a luxury.
I am often late to the party. Fact. Sometimes I don’t even turn up. The curse of the socially awkward and the residue of an inferiority complex perhaps? I know I am very late to one particularly party but why change the habits of a life time? The party I[…]
The joys of reading historical fiction: The Rasputin Dagger
Encouraging pupils to read is hugely important. Getting students reading historical fiction is a great idea as Marc blogged about a wee while back. It will help them develop their sense of period and will allow them to build their knowledge of key events in history. More importantly, though, if[…]
Edexcel 9-1 GCSE history exam question bookmarks
Bookmarks. By the end of your GCSE course it is helpful that your students know exactly what is required of them when it comes to answering different question types. As you may know, teaching students just to pass the test is not why we entered the teaching profession. We want[…]
What is history? Interpretations of course.
There has been some debate recently about whether or not we should use textbooks to teach history in secondary school. And, if we should use such books, which one should be the ‘core’ text, the one that might provide the backbone of a school’s KS3 history course. Let me start[…]
Using knowledge to make meaning
The debate whimpers on. Knowledge and direct instruction against progress teaching ideas. This debate has been going on since the arguments over the birth of GCSE and before. Historical knowledge is crucially important – lets not forget it. But so is the ability to use this knowledge well. We have[…]
Don’t tell me interpretations are too difficult for Key Stage 3
As stated in a previous blog, the teaching of historical interpretations is a crucial element of developing your student’s historical thinking. If you want to play the game where your teaching is solely about getting kids to ‘pass the test’, to do well in the 9-1 GCSEs then this is[…]
7 steps to raising and sustaining attainment through curriculum planning
Are interventions worth it? How much time do you spend on ‘interventions’? How busy are you with year 11/12/13 weekly intervention, after school revision sessions, lunch time drop ins, emails home for those who haven’t and probably won’t ever attend, logging this attendance on SIMs… All of these things take[…]
Giving effective written feedback and still managing workload
We are all told how important feedback is. Written feedback especially. The research. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research states “feedback studies tend to show very high effects on learning”. We know feedback is important. SLTs love looking for this feedback as they can make it part of their accountability[…]
How does the history teacher help increase the progress of pupil premium students?
The progress of pupil premium students has been a hot topic over the last few years, even for the humble history teacher. Arms length control The government have spent millions on this vulnerable group of students and want to see bang for their buck. This pressure has been passed down[…]
Please don’t ask year 7 to answer GCSE exam questions
Recently I arranged for Michael Riley to come and work with my initial teacher trainees and their mentors at Sussex University. What a privilege. After all, it was Michael alongside Jamie Byrom who inspired me to teach history the way that I have been for the last 18 years. A[…]
Using knowledge for a purpose – spot the award winning journalist’s mistake
The debate roles on. How important is knowledge in history? What type of knowledge should we be teaching. Substantive? Disciplinary? And, which is more important? Well, we think that both are crucial. We not only want our students to love history and know lots, we also want them to really see how[…]
Why I had to move 1920s America to Year 9
Why I had to move 1920s America to Year 9: So, we all had to adjust to the changes brought by the new GCSEs and in some ways, this was a good thing. I for one, have found that my teaching has been reinvigorated by getting to teach new units.[…]
Etymology in the history classroom: Using language to make it stick
I’m sure many of you who’ve taught a module on female suffrage have had many a tittering class over Isabella Beeton’s advice from 1861, that a wife should rise before her husband, “and having given due attention to the bath, and made a careful toilet…” in order to be what Lord[…]
Marking: Thank you Ofsted. Let’s hope SLT listen
Yesterday I saw a tweet about marking which definitely made me happy. It cited Ofsted’s school Inspection Update Issue 8 and was written by National Director of Education, Sean Harford. He referred to the Teacher Workload Review Group on Marking (March 2016) and the Education Endowment Foundation (April 2016) which both[…]
Five minute tricks to make learning stick for the 9-1 GCSE
With the 9-1 GCSE there is more content to remember than there was with the older GCSE. Fact! We all need to develop short sharp ideas, or ‘tricks’ to make learning stick.
A Traveller’s guide to planning for success in the 9-1 GCSE
A Traveller’s guide to planning for success in the 9-1 GCSE: I have recently become fascinated by the history of the American West. There are so many great personalities and stories when you start to look. Visiting a number of these sites in the summer really made this history resonate[…]
Helping students to write the dreaded ‘narrative account analysing’ question
Struggling to answer Edexcel’s new narrative account analysing question? Here’s how one teacher tried to make the abstract concrete in her students’ brains.
Using enquiry to succeed at 9-1 GCSE history
I think I might be out of fashion. Come to think of it, on a sartorial level I have never been in fashion. But that is a digression. You see I have always been an advocate of enquiry based history. I gardened in Michael Riley’s enquiry garden way back in[…]
Catering for student curiosity outside the classroom
Advice on how to stimulate and cater for students’ curiosity about history outside the classroom – with reading list download.
Planning and teaching 9-1 GCSE to make learning stick
The 9-1 GCSE are content heavy. Fact. To ensure that teachers cover all of this content well, there is less time at the end of the two years to be able to re-visit and revise. So what do we do? How should we go about planning and teaching 2016 GCSE[…]
The problem with exam questions and teaching to the test
Over the last year I have been working hard creating resources for the new GCSEs. This has led me to look really carefully at many things: different topics, the details of the content, and the assessment approaches of the new GCSEs on offer. These exam questions can be predictable. Fact.[…]
Teaching the fight against domestic fascism in pre and post war Britain
I think I’ve been planning this set of lessons on the fight against domestic fascism since about 1988, when I first saw Celt-punk band, The Men they Couldn’t Hang perform their classic song, the Ghosts of Cable Street at the Lancaster Sugar House. Regular readers of our site will know that we have[…]