I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
The aim of this lesson is to understand the causes and consequences of Harold Hardrada’s invasion of the north of England.
Students learn through narrative and video evidence of the forthcoming battle of Stamford Bridge and how Harold Godwinson was able to win, despite the hurdles Hardrada’s army put in front of him.
Furthermore students have to analyse how much power Harold Godwinson’s army had and efficiency rate (as with a house) why Harald Hardrada eventually ran out of energy.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The aim of this lesson is to understand why Britain was such a good place to invade.
Students are given a thinking quilt to link words and meanings together and challenge their reasoning skills.
Further information will help them understand what Britain had to offer to invaders giving context to its cities, markets and population as well as natural resources and weather.
Students are then required to justify why England was a good place to invade in 1066, with prompts and help given if required.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
Crime and Punishment
The aim of this lesson is to analyse how and why attitudes towards punishment changed in the 18th and 19th Centuries with the development of ‘new’ crimes.
Key questions are posed throughout the lesson. Why was there a shift from public to private punishments? Why was the prison system developed with a focus primarily on retribution and punishment? Why were there a change in attitude towards capital punishment and the desire to expand the police force?
The first part of the lesson assesses the responses of governments to the crimes of highway robbery, poaching, smuggling, rioting, protesting and joining a Trade Union. Students plot the various crimes, giving explanations and reasons for the increase in crimes and how effective the government responses were to reduce it. There is a diamond nine activity and video link to help.
The second part of the lesson plots the strengths and weaknesses of Government punishments such as transportation, the expansion of prisons and the police force.
A thinking quilt at the end of this part of the lesson will check understanding and students can also complete some extended writing practice, with prompts and a markscheme provided.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Crime and Punishment
The aim of this lesson is to ascertain how attitudes towards punishment have changed in the 21st Century.
Students begin the lesson by deciding which punishments are new in the modern era (change) and which punishments have stayed the same (continuity).
They then analyse how successful new preventative measures are being promoted through schemes such as neighbourhood watch and community policing.
Students also investigate the different policing departments set up to tackle crime, such as Special Branch and the National Crime Agency.
There is a chance to debate the morality of the death penalty and whether it should be brought back or not, with arguments given for both sides.
The final focus is on the role of prisons in today’s society, never far away from the news headlines. A true or false quiz is also designed to challenge misconceptions and clarify current prison problems.
Ultimately there is some recall practice on previous thinking about punishments through the ages, before students can tackle some key assessment question practice, with help and a markscheme provided if required.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The Holocaust
This lesson analyses the story of Anne Frank and celebrates her short life. It asks in a sequence of lessons I have produced, who is to blame for the holocaust?
Was it the SS who rounded up the Frank family or was it friends or spies to blame for theirs and countless death during World War 2?
The lesson tells her story and asks students to think of but, because and so.
There are some great video links to accompany the lesson as well as some analysis on an extract from her diary and a virtual tour of the annex.
A final true of false quiz checks recall and retrieval from the lesson.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
These eleven lessons are designed to meet the needs of the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum and cover the development of the Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-1509; the Norman Conquest.
All the lessons are differentiated and come with suggested teaching and learning strategies and link to the latest interpretations of the conquest from the BBC and other sources.
This bundle addresses key historical skills from the outset, from a baseline test to track the students’ starting points, questioning what is history and how to use historical sources.
Furthermore key questions are asked in this period; Who was Alfred the Great? What did the Romans leave in Britain? Why was England a good place to invade in 1066? What were the causes and consequences of Edward the Confessor dying? What were the similarities and differences in the claims of contenders to the throne, from Harald Hardrada, William the Conqueror, Harold Godwinson and Edgar the Atheling? What was significant about the Battle of Stamford Bridge and how was William the Conqueror able to win the Battle of Hastings with his feigned retreat from the Anglo-Saxon shield wall on Senlac Hill?
These skills are addressed in each of the lessons and allow students to be able to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends and be able to create their own structured accounts and written narratives.
The lessons are broken down into the following
L1 Baseline Assessment Test
L2 What is History
L3 Historical Sources
L4 Roman Britain
L5 Alfred the Great
L6 The Anglo-Saxons (free resource)
L7 Contenders to the throne
L8 The Anglo-Saxon and Norman armies
L9 The Battle of Stamford Bridge (free resource)
L10 The Battle of Hastings
L11 Why did William win the Battle of Hastings?
( + Key Word History Display)
All the resources come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This bundle follows the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum - challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day with a focus on the Second World War and the wartime leadership of Winston Churchill.
The aims of this bundle are to know and understand how people’s lives in Britain were affected by World War II under the guidance of Winston Churchill.
I have created, readapted and used these lessons to challenge and engage students, but also to show how much fun learning about this part of history really is.
Students will learn and understand key historical skills throughout such as continuity and change in the role and use of propaganda in World War II, the causes and consequences of the policy of appeasement, breaking the Enigma Code or the evacuation of children, the similarities and differences of life on the Home Front, the significance of Winston Churchill and interpretations about whether there really was a Blitz spirit.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Adolf Hitler
L2 Causes of World War II
L3 Appeasement
L4 Winston Churchill
L5 The Home Front - preparations
L6 The Home Front - propaganda
L7 The Home Front - rationing
L8 The Home Front - women (free lesson)
L9 Evacuation of children
L10 The Blitz
L11 The Enigma Code
L12 Prisoners of war (free lesson)
L13 Occupation of the Channel Islands
This bundle on the Second World War includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials.
All lessons come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included two free lessons in the bundle to give an idea of what is being offered.
I would also strongly recommend you assess students on this unit of study based on GCSE style questions from your chosen exam board.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson is a study of the impact war had on peoples’ lives in Germany between 1914-1918.
Students have to evaluate the main changes in Germany during the war and if they were positive or negative changes
For example, the Kaiser being forced to share his power could be seen as a positive thing to many, but there was also a terrible shortage of food as the allied naval blockade really began to bite.
Worksheets are supplied to use for evidence, as the students box up their findings ready to tackle a timed question for GCSE question practice.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the devastating consequences that alleged witchcraft had on communities in Stuart England.
Students will be posed questions such as: Why were the Stuarts so obsessed with witches and witchcraft? How and why did the Pendle witch trials cause so much historical notoriety and infamy? and How could you even recognise a witch and why should they be feared in the local community?
These questions will be answered and explained in this lesson, which ultimately focuses on the Pendle witch trials and its results for English society as a whole, who soon lived in fear and terror for their lives.
Activities include evidence collection, a true or false quiz, a literacy challenge as well as video analysis.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This guide is aimed at students to help them study, revise and be prepared for the AQA Elizabethan Historic Environment question for 2025.
I have broken down the main details into manageable chunks using the 5 w’s of what, where, when, why and who ,
This guide has been revised from my 2018 version and focuses on the main concepts of location, function, structure, design, people connected to it, the culture, values and fashions of the time and how the site links to important events of the period.
I have also included all the key information needed such as Bess’s background and status, the latest in fashions and the designing of Hardwick Hall as well as its furnishings and garden layout.
Please note that many of the pictures from the AQA guidance on Hardwick Hall are not included due to copyright. Please feel free to therefore adapt the guide and include them.
Any reviews on this resource would be greatly appreciated
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson aims to assess how positive the US Government’s early attempts were to ‘civilise’ the Plains Indians between c.1830-1851.
By adopting a westward expansionist policy, students have to question how beneficial this was and for whom?
Was America to benefit from improving the Plains, by ploughing it for farming, digging up its minerals for manufacturing or simply clearing its forests for timber?
Students are given various scenarios and laws such as the Indian Removal Act and the Indian Appropriations Act and individually rate each scenario by colour coding a battery to signify positive or negative before coming to a conclusion as to who benefited from this conflict over land.
There is some follow up exam question practice using the ‘write a narrative account’ worth 8 marks.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included using causal equations.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
