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.
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 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.
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
The aim of this lesson is to explore the problems of the rapid rising of mining towns and the lawlessness they created in the American West.
Students complete a Head and Tails activity and a thinking quilt which challenges them to decide the greatest changes as well as the most important and biggest impact the early towns and settlements brought.
There is some GCSE exam question practice on the ‘importance question’, with some help given if required.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice using an A-Z task is also included.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
The aim of this lesson is to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the new inventions introduced in the 19th Century to the Great Plains to aid the Homesteaders and tackle the problems they faced.
Students have to decide what a Homesteader would need with up to $1000 and use images to piece together how inventions would help them settle in the Plains.
There is an effective rating activity using a battery in which they have to rate the most and least effective of all the inventions (or not if they take into account natural disasters).
Some GCSE question practice focuses of the narrative account question with key exam skills attached as well as some help if required.
The plenary involves students deciding on the answers to 12 answers.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice using the odd one out is also included.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The American West, c1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
The aim of this lesson is to understand the rise of the cattle industry and the impact it had on the American West.
Students are given a Texan Cattle Industry Thinking Quilt which introduces them to new concepts and key words.
They are introduced to Joseph McCoy and have to decipher a number of statements relating to him which have specific errors in them to correct.
They analyse various texts and video links on the Goodnight-Loving Trail as well as the rise of John Iliff and have to work out relating statistics as well as key questions which aim to challenge assumptions and beliefs.
There is some GCSE exam practice on the ‘consequences’ question, with help given if required.
The plenary is a talking heads activity.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice on source recall is also included.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
The aim of this lesson is to explore the challenges faced by Homesteaders in moving onto the Great Plains and setting up farms.
Students begin by deciding how different inventions could lead to improved farming techniques.
They also have to complete a true or false quiz, before using a thinking quilt to match up key facts with the correct questions.
The plenary is based around the ‘are you a robot?’ idea which is becoming all too familiar when we are trying to log into a specific website.
There is some follow up GCSE exam question practice using the ‘importance’ question worth 8 marks, with help given if required.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some recall retrieval practice is also included using a spider diagram.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson aims to understand and evaluate the impact of the US Government policy on the Plains Indians.
Students recall previous Government policy pre 1860 and analyse how this started to encroach on the Plains Indians way of life.
They then have to analyse four areas of impact; the coming of the railroad, cattle, reservations and the discovery of gold. Using a cauldron, they have to decide which facts (or ingredients) are the most significant to mix into it. These ingredients are placed on the shelves. The higher the shelf, the more significant the impact of the ingredient.
The plenary uses images (the linkee game) to decipher and recap further problems faced by the Plains Indians . Students then have to decide what happened at a consequence.
There is some follow up exam question practice using the ‘consequences’ question worth 8 marks.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in Powerpoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
