Ofsted describes an inadequate lesson as one where the students are over dependent on the teacher and produce only passive responses. The same lesson often has a one size fits all approach that limits the students’ own responses and ability to produce their own work. All of these points would produce a truly terrible lesson within the sixth form where there is expected to be even more independence. The students need to be encouraged to think for themselves and solve their own problems. This does not only mean making sure they bring a spare pen to the lesson but also how to go about completing their own work, how it is to be presented and finding the correct answer or solution. Activity Aims: 1. To demonstrate to the students the different ways of looking at problems 2. For the students to look at the process of coming to a solution

At times ‘A’ level history can get a tad complicated and students get lost in the information they are given. Added to this is the tendency for students to make lots of written notes, where again they get lost in the information. Students often need a more simplistic version of events and this Recipe aims to provide the medium for that. Within science, cause and effect, can be quite simple process and is often predictable, indeed that is the aim of science. However, people respond differently to inanimate objects and therefore the process is a little harder. Nonetheless the simple way of looking at cause and effect can be a useful way to investigate historical events. Activity Aims: 1. To simplify potentially complex events. 2. To show how events in history are never in a vacuum; that they are part of an on-going process.

This is an interesting look at how democracy changed and emerged in the early twentieth century. The students will be encouraged to look at how women gained the vote but also about power in society and how that is used. This topic fits in perfectly with other aspects of the curriculum. This topic is key to understanding some of the changes in the last century and how we come to live in our world today. The Pack includes Lesson Plan, PowerPoint and Handouts.

It is perhaps the simplest thing to do. Think. However, when the examiner tells the students to begin their exams it can often be a rather more challenging proposal. This Lesson contains a variety of activities designed to get the students thinking. On their own they do not take too much time but can be easily adapted to some of the other Recipes to develop the revision. This activity can also be used as a thinking skills activity at the start of the year.

One of the hardest things to comprehend, especially when young is the passage of time. One of the easiest things to get wrong therefore is time management, especially as the idea of an A level taking two years is misleading. Being able to manage and plan time effectively as well as working with other likeminded people could be beneficial. This Lesson can also be used at the beginning of the course.

The question every student needs to ask but one that is often overlooked. This resource encourages the students to explore just who creates history and who chooses what we remember. This resource allows the students to explore the question using resources and doing some historical research. Contains a PowerPoint, Lesson Plan and Resources.

Make History come alive. History is often portrayed as what happened to other people and the students sometimes struggle to empathise with the characters they are introduced to. These activities have the students conduct some historical research on being a 14 year old at different periods over the last one hundred years. Thus the students compare themselves today with their ipads and rights to those children that experienced a vastly different existence during the twentieth century. This activity is not so much about empathising with 14 year olds in the past but more to focus on the idea of change and continuity. The students are investigating their peers of the last one hundred years. What is different, why is it different and is now better? This activity opens up history and encourages the students to see themselves within an historical context. Includes Lesson Plan, PowerPoint and Handouts.

This resource pack looks at one of the pivotal moments of the twentieth century. The students will look at how the value of money crashed and how this affected people in all parts of the world, especially Germany. This resource includes an on-going homework task, the use of ICT and even some role play if required. The students will find this an engaging way to look at a complex topic. The Pack includes Lesson Plan, PowerPoint and Handouts.

A simple and interactive resource to explain a complex situation. All discussions in history involve money, especially in the sixteenth century. However, it is never really discussed how the money that monarchs borrow is created and the consequences of this. This resources looks at how money is made in the banking system during the Sixteenth Century (and later). This topic also allows the teacher to link the past with the banking system of today and the influence it also has on power. This activity is rare for the sixth form in that it encourages the students to get out of their seats and actively take part in the learning. Contains a PowerPoint and Lesson Plan and resources

The Second World War brought the fighting home like never before. Parents faced the difficult decision of what to do with their children? Where was the safest place for them? The children had to be separated from their family and the only area they had ever known and travel great distances into the unknown. This Lesson concerns the experience of those evacuees as well as the difficult decision that their parents faced. It contains a variety of activities that can be stretched over a few lessons and includes homework ideas as well.

The world created in the classroom is often a simple one in that everything fits with everything else. When talking about a rebellion breaking out in Norwich and a King who quickly quashes it, there is often the simplicity of a Television drama. We know of the rebellion and we know the King responds but the context to make it real is often lost. For example do the students know where Norwich is? If not then it is difficult to get them to fully understand the full implication of the rebellion. Students today live in an instant world. They upload their work to a ‘cloud’ and receive information instantly. This is not the world they have to understand for their ‘A’ levels. While most students appreciate this point to an extent they still struggle with how slow the world was before the internet and the iPhone.

This is an excellent way to incorporate numeracy into the history curriculum as well as appealing to those students who are more visual in their learning. This is unique and inventive way of viewing complex historical arguments. Often students find pages of notes comlex or difficult to gain simple patterns from. By viewing the arguments and evidence visually the students get to see the big picture much more clearly. Use Pie charts and graphs to sort information to make arguments and conclusions easier. The example one in the resource is on the Northern Rebellion but the principle can be applied to all aspects of history. Contains a PowerPoint and Lesson Plan