Teaching and Learning at Keystage 3

This is a massive section on the site, and one that you will quarry for years. I have listed here all the best ideas I have seen in action over twenty years of visiting school history departments and seven years' of OFSTED inspections. To these have...

How NOT to start your history lessons 7 wise warnings AND more importantly, 7 practical solutions. With so much emphasis placed on the three-part lesson, due largely to the National Strategy, it is tempting to follow that simplistic model.  Many do, and feel triumphant when...

In my experience pupils have less and less contact with historical artefacts as they move through the educational system.  Whilst infants clearly need artefacts more because they cannot use many written sources, there is no reason why pupils at KS3 should not be given artefacts...

You won't be surprised to see ICT and film in the same section, but the breakthroughs in editing digitised film mean that most history teachers can now use film as they would a still image.  The other key breakthrough has been the appearance of multi-media...

Much neglected for many years, the teaching of chronology is now back centre-stage.    Already, leading thinkers such as Ian Dawson and Chris Culpin have produced lots of really helpful advice.  Ian in particular has always been keen on telling 'thematic stories' in history to...

It came as no surprise to read in OFSTED's report 'History in the Balance' (July 2007) that the 'key element' of interpretations was still relatively badly taught.  Having been a central part of the history National Curriculum (and to my mind the jewel in the...

From 2008 onwards pupils should learn how to identify and investigate, individually and as part of a team, specific historical questions or issues, making and testing hypotheses and reflecting critically on historical questions or issues.  This includes structured enquiries into different kinds of historical questions...

Having bright ideas for what might make a fun and interesting approach is one thing.  Knowing when it is most appropriate to use them is quite another.  Clearly the key consideration must relate to the way the activity helps pupils to reach the learning objectives...

It has been a while since OFSTED published any revised criteria. With the departure of chief history HMI Mike Maddison in 2014-5, I doubt very much that there will be any new guidance in the near future. Even if there was, I doubt if it...