OUP’s Bridging the Word Gap at Transition report gives it to us straight. As Jane Harley states in the Foreword: ‘Transition from primary to secondary is a pivotal time; the word gap remains a major issue, and more needs to be done to address this. There is a lack of coherence in the expectations for language coverage and how it is taught across […]
Read more
It seems like a lifetime ago that Aaron Wilkes and I wrote about the return to the classroom after the first national lockdown. We focused in that blog about how to spot the gaps and how to recover the curriculum – and here we are again. Teaching children History (or indeed, any subject) remotely is […]
Read more
Aaron Wilkes joined us for a webinar discussing how the lockdown has affected the teaching and learning of GCSE History, picking up on the themes of consolidation, challenges and change.
Read more
On Friday 20th March, it was announced that all UK schools would close to staff and most pupils in a bid to tackle the spread of Covid-19. Immediately teachers started to do what teachers do best – they began the tricky job of ensuring that both the students who would be at home for the […]
Read more
The past few weeks have been hard. It’s hardly a new insight, but for teachers – a group that likes to be in control – this has been particularly tough! Working from home and trying to get the children we teach to learn virtually is a unique situation that creates the following areas of concern: […]
Read more
The History community – in fact, the teaching world in general – seems to have gone ‘knowledge-rich’ mad over the past year or so. Social media platforms and discussion groups seem to be awash with knowledge organisers and knowledge workbooks, and lots of techniques and strategies to recall, retain, retrieve and then write about knowledge. […]
Read more
The @OxfordEdHistory twitter recently hosted a live twitter Q&A takeover with history teacher and author Aaron Wilkes, answering teachers’ questions and discussing current concerns about teaching KS3 History! Don’t worry if you missed it – you can read all of the KS3 discussions here. Q. I seem to be reading from OFSTED that they are keen […]
Read more
It’s that time of year again! Exam season is nearly upon us. Here is a list of strategies and ways to overcome some of the obstacles we face when trying to get our students to revise for their History exams. Teach them how to revise We hammer home the need for revision, set homework with […]
Read more
A great benefit of AQA’s British Depth Study unit is the Historic Environment which is embedded into the depth study being taught. It is also a confidence booster for students as they know that the 16 mark question is guaranteed to be about that Historic Environment. Therefore, as teachers, we want to ensure students feel […]
Read more
What’s your favourite topic to teach at KS3? My favourite topic to teach in KS3 at present is the First World War depth study. The Kerboodle book Technology, War and Independence has a very good chapter that begins with the reasons for the outbreak of the War and includes; why young men joined up, propaganda […]
Read more