SECONDARY
Planning for progression in sourcework
Sources are the materials that historians use to construct their accounts of the past. This workshop outlines how Alex and Sally teach for progression in using historical sources, with students from Year 7 through to sixth form. As well as the importance of knowing more context, they have been considering how to draw out more complex inferences over time, by asking the right questions; teaching students to construct their own questions to help them to interrogate sources; moving on from content and provenance to looking at sources as a whole, perfect package; and cross-referencing different types of sources to support enquiries. Not a ‘biast’ in sight, we promise! There will be a range of practical examples and a chance to build on your own progression model, using sources you bring that are relevant to your curriculum.
Friday: 10.45–11.45
‘Why weren’t we taught this?’ is something that Anita Anand says about the history of India in nearly every episode of the Empire podcast. She has a point. If India is included in our curriculums at all, it is mostly there as a brief sideways glance. Yet the history of India impacts all of us. It is rich, fascinating and important. It has shaped Britain and British history. In this workshop, we will give you the tools to include a richer story of India in your Key Stage 3. We will discuss what we think are the most important points that need to be covered, including a focus on 1857, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Partition. We will share approaches and enquiry questions. We will spotlight the stories of those who have been previously neglected from our narratives.
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 3
The importance of teaching young people about our planetary crisis is hard to overstate. This is the defining existential challenge of our time, yet the school curriculum does little to help students to understand our present predicament or to think about possible futures. UCL’s new Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education has been established to provide research-informed professional development for teachers on these issues. Alison and Michael’s workshop will draw on their work at the centre to consider how history teachers can engage with academic research to teach environmental history. They will share practical approaches that can be used to build students’ knowledge and understanding of how we got into this mess, and of how history might help us to envisage a hopeful future.
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 3
Alex Ford
Schools History Project; Leeds Trinity University
‘Erasure is a form of violence that sustains a settler-colonial present.’ (Blackbird and Dodds Pennock, 2021, pp. 248–249)
The American West has been a staple GCSE topic for over 50 years, and remains one of the most commonly taught GCSE units. Yet too many young people say that the American West is complex, boring and irrelevant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet GCSE specifications make it hard for young people to recognise the historic and continuing struggles of Indigenous peoples against settler-colonialism, contributing to Indigenous erasure and perpetuating injustices. It is within our power as teachers to challenge these injustices. This session will offer practical solutions to put Indigenous peoples at the heart of the GCSE American West and ensure that the American West is a history that young people demand to learn.
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 4, Key Stage 3
School of Education, University of Sheffield
Why do our students struggle to write convincingly about the causes of events? An answer that this session provides is that students can’t see the narrative link between cause and event, and so don’t have the awareness or ability to explain that link effectively.
By using graphic scaffolds to dual code the narrative connection between cause and event, we can visualise causation and model how to translate them into written analysis. We can then train students to write causal analysis using these visual aids that we’ve provided, adapting their content and the way in which they are used in response to students’ needs, and gradually remove that support until students can independently create their own graphic scaffolds and translate this into written work. The resulting analysis establishes a clear and secure narrative link from cause to event.
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 3
Trinity Catholic School, Leamington Spa
Friday: 10.45–11.45
Department of Education, University of Oxford
Friday: 12.00–13.00
Many scholars have indicated that units on the British Empire can sometimes result in pupils seeing empire and migration as topics that are separate from, rather than integral to, ‘domestic’ British history. This session shares a first attempt to hide these issues in plain sight by integrating them into a mainstream British narrative from c1500 to c1800.
Friday: 12.00–13.00
Key Stage 3
This session, based on research and classroom implementation, focuses on how we used the disciplinary concept of consequence to facilitate curricular links and measure our students’ learning. We will link the theory of the curriculum as a progression model with our teaching practice designing assessments for Year 9. A conceptual focus on consequence through the question ‘What were the most important consequences of the First World War?’ enabled our students to make meaningful links between a range of twentieth-century topics, spanning the soldiers of empire to suffragettes and the German Revolution. We will reflect on using assessment to help strengthen curricular connections and the importance of thinking time in lessons to facilitate independent engagement with the curriculum as a whole.
Friday: 12.00–13.00
University of York
Friday: 12.00–13.00
Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Post-16, Teacher educators
Friday: 12.00–13.00
GCSE History thematic studies
AQA sponsored session
Ros Farrell
AQA
In this session Ros will demonstrate strategies to improve students’ ability to think thematically, encompassing pedagogy, assessment, and long term planning across Key Stages.
Friday: 12.00–13.00
Sir Robert Pattinson Academy, Lincoln
Sarah Longair
University of Lincoln
How can we teach the micro histories of objects as a tool to illuminate the macro? In this session, we will explore the value of material objects as a medium for understanding wider histories, as well as how to build a curriculum supported by objects. The session will spotlight how a third-year undergraduate course from Dr Sarah Longair has been used to create a scheme of learning for Key Stage 3 by Sasha Smith to create an object-centred, challenging and ambitious course, to inspire and enliven history students’ learning. The session will also include practical examples demonstrating how objects and artefacts can be successfully used to supplement the Key Stage 3 curriculum, from Viking archaeology to the Partition of India.
Friday: 12.00–13.00
Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Post-16, Teacher educators
University of Oxford
1. What do we mean when we talk about the ‘legacies’ of the British Empire? What is a ‘legacy’?
– Since legacies are about causality, it can be difficult to identify what is and isn’t a legacy.
2. Why are legacies controversial?
– Beliefs about the legacies of British Empire are associated with voting behaviour.
3. How do legacies manifest in the classroom?
– Textbooks rarely make reference to historical legacies, yet students want to discuss historical legacies.
Friday: 14.00–15.00
York College
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Post-16
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Student dialogue is a feature of all vibrant history classrooms. However, when it comes to assessment, there is too often the temptation to retreat from dialogue to traditional written essays. Indeed, student dialogue is often viewed as a means to an essay end, rather than an end in its own right.
This session will share approaches to structuring, supporting and assessing student dialogue in Key Stage 3 history classrooms. There will be a particular focus on the use of speaking assessments as a means of elevating the profile of ‘talking history’ in the eyes of students, as well as within the curricula of history departments. Experiments with a framework for speaking assessments in history will be shared, alongside ways in which technology can be utilised to support such assessments. Successes, limitations and future plans will then be discussed.
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Teaching South African history at A-level: building subject knowledge and confidence
Pearson Edexcel sponsored session in collaboration with Anti-Apartheid Legacy
Ciara McCombe
St Claudine’s Catholic School for Girls, London
Caroline Kamana
Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning
Students have the chance to learn about apartheid-era South Africa as a depth study in the Pearson Edexcel A-level history specification, Route F: Searching for rights and freedoms in the twentieth century. Learning about this history is an avenue to develop student understanding in substantive concepts such as nationalism, democracy, protest, race, empire, and human rights. These concepts have gained attention in recent years because of strong contemporary resonances that lead to the heart of why we study history. However, most teachers are unlikely to have studied South African history at university, and will lack subject knowledge. This workshop is designed to help teachers find out more about the subject, discover new learning materials, and build their subject confidence.
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Nick Latham
University of the West of England, Bristol
This practical session will showcase ways in which to engage children in chronology with a global perspective, and beyond the realms of the Anglo-centric areas of the National Curriculum. We know that the Romans left Britain in A.D.410 but what was the global context of the time? What was happening in Asia? In Africa? What about the rest of Europe? Were there any links between these regions? This session intends to inspire teachers and give them tools and ideas with which to give their children the ‘big picture’ when beginning a new unit of history learning.
Friday: 14.00–15.00
Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition
This workshop will look at the challenges around teaching difficult areas of history, and how departments can overcome these to teach sensitive and challenging topics with confidence. We will discuss how TRACTION has impacted our work, and examples will include teaching the history of the Holy Land; racialisation; trans-Atlantic slavery; Somali history; Indian Partition and LGBT histories.
Friday: 16.30–17.30
A look at different practical strategies to introduce and implement interleaving at GCSE level to help pupil progress. This will involve understanding research, internal data and the utilising of interventions to enable students to know more and remember more at GCSE.
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Key Stage 3
HA Teacher Fellows and course leaders
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Patricia Hannam
University of Exeter, Exeter
In this interactive workshop, Pat opens a conversation about the role that dialogue can play in the history classroom (primary and secondary). This is especially so that children and young people can become increasingly fluent in the use of substantive historical vocabulary. The workshop will have practical elements and introduce supporting theory and international research. She discusses the contribution that dialogue can make to children and young people becoming increasingly aware of the significance of context and nuanced meanings of substantive vocabulary, such as civilisation, empire, conquest, invasion, monarchy and sovereignty. Educationally, Pat is interested in how all this will contribute to children and young people gaining big-picture, broad and deep historical consciousness, able to speak and think well as they emerge into our shared world.
Friday: 16.30–17.30
Early Years, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Post-16, Teacher educators
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Cottenham Village College
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
In this workshop, we will look at direct instruction through a history lens, and not vice versa. I will explain why I find teacher-led instruction powerful and what this looks like in my classroom. I will also give a few health warnings about strategies that are sometimes associated with direct instruction and that I think are unhelpful or misapplied in history. (‘I do, we do, you do’, anyone?) By separating the wheat from the chaff, I will try to answer the question ‘What is direct instruction in the history classroom, and what is it not?’
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3
Emmy Quinn
Newminster Middle School, Morpeth
Artefacts can give students a unique and valuable insight into the time period that they are studying, but they are often neglected and are rarely the main focus. This session will showcase an enquiry on Ancient Egypt, centred around artefacts from the tomb of an Egyptian architect and his wife (Kha and Merit) and how they give an insight into the lives of ordinary Egyptians. Attendees will come away with practical ideas about how to use artefacts in lessons and take a different look at a popular topic. The session will also consider how using artefacts can give students an insight into the work of historians, archaeologists and museums, as well as the contested ownership of artefacts. The adaptability of this approach will be demonstrated through its application to other topics, such as the Kingdom of Benin and the Vikings in Britain.
Saturday: 10.45–11.45
Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3
Yate Academy
The Classical Association
Hodder Education sponsored session
Reigate College
Helen Snelson and Ruth Lingard
University of York
Alex Fairlamb
Co-op Academy Walkden, Walkden
What are the issues that history teachers and leaders of history currently experience when constructing curriculums, implementing them and evaluating their impact? This is a workshop focused on discussing current issues within history teaching, in terms of teaching disciplinary concepts and substantive concepts. The session will also explore other areas such as literacy and oracy in history, leadership of history and transition. Moreover, it will look at lesser-taught topics in history and how we can approach incorporating them within curriculums. As a workshop model, the session will begin with outlining what the key issues are and then having groups read different excerpts on different issues, which will then be fed back to the group with guided questioning. Conclusions will then be drawn as to takeaways.
Key Stage 2, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Post-16, Teacher educators
Carre’s Grammar School, Sleaford; University of Nottingham
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Key Stage 4
University of Cambridge
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Key Stage 3
With A-level history exams incorporating the entirety of the course for the first time since 2019, it is clearly more important than ever to consider how we help students to develop methods of organising and revising their work over the two years of study. We believe that teacher understanding of how students learn is a critical starting point to achieve this. This session utilises the work of cognitive scientists such as Weinstein and Sumeracki to set out key strategies for effective learning, with a specific focus on how to help students become more accomplished independent learners. We will both look at the theories on creating effective independent learners and provide practical examples on how this can be implemented in your A-level classroom to enhance your students’ performance over their two years of study.
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Huntington School
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Key Stage 3
GCSE History: implementing change and preparing for future reform
Pearson Edexcel sponsored session
Mark Battye
Pearson Edexcel
Katie Hall
Work on developing the current GCSE History specification began nearly a decade ago now, and much has moved on since then in the study of history. This workshop is an opportunity to reflect on this and consider what changes may be on the horizon. As well as presenting some of our observations and ideas, we would like to hear your thinking on a range of issues, such as selecting and structuring content; approaches to assessment; the development of historical skills; diversity, equity and inclusion; student voice and the ongoing relevance of the subject; and how we support teachers and students as the study of history continues to evolve.
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Terence Graham
Shabana Marshall
St Mary’s College, Twickenham
Project North Star is a group of teachers and academics from the North East, telling Black history through a North East lens from Roman to modern times, including the region’s links to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and its role in abolition. Project North Star links students and wider communities to their local heritage and lesser-known histories. Our session will show how we could ‘dream big’, and to work with local and international partners to create this. We will examine the pathways and the problems along the way. We’ll look at projects that you would like to create and how you can make them happen. We have links with local higher education, archives, museums, community groups, theatres, local historians and partners in the West Indies and USA. We’ll offer guidance in creating your own project, handle difficult histories and inspire you to dream big.
Saturday: 14.00–15.00
Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 2
Ofsted inspection: impacts on schools and teachers 1993–2022… and beyond: lessons from the past and practical tips for the future
Consultants
This secondary keynote will commence by drawing upon Ian’s five years of research for his successful PhD thesis on the impacts of Ofsted inspection on schools and their teachers between 1993 and 2018. The research will be used to place the Ofsted of today in context, based on in-depth interviews with secondary teachers, many of whom were heads of history, and who had 757 years of teaching experience and 119 inspections between them at the time of interview.
The implications of this research will then be built upon and applied to activities and ideas relevant for history classroom teachers, history and team leaders, and school leaders of today, using Dale and Ian’s experiences of Ofsted inspection. This experience was gained over many years of service as deputy headteachers, advisory teachers, teacher trainers, authors, heads of history and, above all, history teachers. Tips and ideas for the future will be based on history lessons and schemes of work of proven success. These key themes will include:
- How to prepare for an inspection of a history department or history lesson – key questions for history teachers and leaders to consider
- A review of research into factors that influence the quality of history education in schools in England – exploring the 2021 Ofsted Research Review
- Building an ambitious history curriculum – developing complex thinking and high-quality writing
- Putting your values and love of history at the heart of a relevant, diverse and inclusive curriculum
Saturday: 15.15–16.15
Cross-phase/transition, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Post-16
Annual Sponsor

Conference Sponsors

Conference Sponsor

CONTACT US:
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 702165
Email: conference@history.org.uk
The Historical Association, c/o Mosaic Events
Tower House, Mill Lane, Askham Bryan, York, YO23 3FS