These ‘at a glance’ revision notes were specially written to give Edexcel A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Paper 1, Option 1B: England, 1509–1603: authority, nation and religion 1 Monarchy and government, 1509–88 2 Religious changes, 1509–88 3 State control and popular resistance, 1509–88 4 Economic, social and cultural change, 1509–88 Was there a general crisis of government in the last years of Elizabeth I’s reign, 1589–1603? (Historians and their views are explicitly discussed here) They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These revision notes were created for my students and were intended to give them a comprehensive overview of th four parts of the Crusades AQA A Level specification: The origins of conflict and the First Crusade, c1071–c1099 The foundation of new states and the Second Crusade, c1099–1149 The Muslim Counter-Crusade and Crusader states, 1149–1187 (A-level only) The Third and Fourth Crusades, 1187–1204 (A-level only) They were especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson wasn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills meant they were missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. They found these notes certainly helped reduce the time it took them to catch up with their peers, and also they enjoyed using them as a checklist of topics to go into further detail. Hopefully these help to save your students (and you!) some time in the run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These ‘at a glance’ revision notes are intended to give AQA A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the four parts of the breadth study: “The British Empire, c1857–1967”: Part one: the High Water Mark of the British Empire, c1857–1914 The development of Imperialism, c1857–c1890 Imperial consolidation and Liberal rule, c1890–1914 Part two: Imperial retreat, 1914–1967 (A-level only) Imperialism challenged, 1914–1947 (A-level only) The winds of change, 1947–1967 (A-level only) They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These ‘at a glance’ revision notes were specially written to give Edexcel A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Paper 1, Option 1G Germany and West Germany, 1918–89: 1 Political and governmental change, 1918–89 2 Opposition, control and consent, 1918–89 3 Economic development and policies, 1918–89 4 Aspects of life in Germany and West Germany, 1918–89 Historical Interpretations: How far was Hitler’s foreign policy responsible for the Second World War? (Specific historians and their viewpoints are detailed here) They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson is designed with OCR’s GCSE Classical Civilisation unit: Myth and Religion The lesson is comprehensive in its inclusion of everything the GCSE specification requires: How wealth and status affected burial in Ancient Rome Preparation of the body Funerary procession Burial of the body Festivals for the dead and ancestors Also, primary sources such as Pliny and Ovid are included and clearly signposted for students. Thinking questions (to be answered verbally or in written form are included) as are exam questions at the end, in addition to a short video where Mary Beard looks at Roman tombs lining the road into Rome. Everything my students needed to know is included and they seemed to really enjoy it and engage with it. It’s presented using the principles of dual coding to reduce cognitive load - ensuring that excess ‘noise’ on the PowerPoint does not prove a barrier to knowledge acquisition and retention. Thanks for taking a look :)

The lesson starts by asking students what the lesson might be about based on a set of abstract images. It assumes some prior knowledge about the basics of Theseus’s life e.g. How he was born and who he was. Included in the powerpoint which can be printed A3 or A4 is a worksheet which students can fill in with information about each of Theseus’ labours as you go through them on the board. Students are introduced to the kylix depicting the labours of Theseus housed in the British Museum. As a prescribed source for the GCSE, it is crucial that students know which labour is depicted where on the kylix itself. This powerpoint provides rotated and enlarged versions of each depiction at the appropriate points in the lesson. This ensures that students are constantly thinking not only about Theseus’ labours, but also how they are depicted on the kylix at all times. All the information students need to know about each of Theseus’ labours for the new Classical Civilisation OCR 9-1 GCSE is included. Having already studied Heracles earlier on in the course. There are questions to prompt comparisons with Theseus’ contemporary hero – in particular in the labours that they undertake and the way in which they go about doing them. This comparative thinking will help with the exam question at the end of the lesson. There is a link to a short animation (appropriate for all ages) included to his final labour: the defeat of the Minotaur which students can use to enhance their understanding of this story. The kylix is then referred back to as students are asked to contemplate how appropriate each depiction on the kylix is based on what they know about their labour, followed by a ranking and justification task. Finally, an 8 mark comparison question is included. It is designed to take them 8 minutes as per the timings on the paper at GSCE, and as a support there are sentence starters and helpful tips available to those that might need it. An extension task is also included which encourages the comparison with Heracles.

This lesson is designed to fit into an hour and guides students, in a very straightforward but detailed way, through the key features of a Roman insula (apartment building) that was the cornerstone of Roman City Life for the average city-dwelling Plebeian. Roman insulae were subject to collapse, fire damage and unscrupulous landlords and there is a handout included as a slide within the powerpoint file taking students through what different Roman authors had to say about these high-rise apartment blocks. The final task before the plenary is a more creative one encouraging students to write about insulae in the style of the satirist Juvenal, who famously moaned a lot about them! Ideal for anyone teaching Classical Civilisation GCSE, the powerpoint is graphically designed in a way that students experience as little cognitive load as possible which my students definitely appreciate - allowing them to more readily access the information they need to embed. Two video clips are included too (hence the large file size) ensuring students have access to learning about the topic through a a few different kinds of media. Thanks for taking a look :-)

These ‘at a glance’ revision notes were specially written to give Edexcel A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Paper 2, Option 2A.2: England and the Angevin Empire in the reign of Henry II, 1154–89 1 The restoration and extension of royal authority, 1154–72 2 Reforms in England, 1154–89 3 Henry II and the English church, 1154–74 4 Crises of the Angevin Empire, 1170–89 They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These ‘at a glance’ revision notes were specially written to give Edexcel A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Paper 2, Option 2G.1:The rise and fall of fascism in Italy, c1911–46: 1 The liberal state, c1911–18 2 The rise ofMussolini and the creation of a fascist dictatorship, 1919–26 3 The fascist state, 1925��40 4 Challenges to, and the fall of, the fascist state, c1935–46 They are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These detailed course / revision notes were specially written to give OCR A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Unit Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: four case studies 1) The Songhay Empire c.1450–1591 2) The Kingdom of Kongo c.1400–c.1709 3) The Kingdom of Benin c.1500–c.1750 4) The Kingdoms and Empires of Oyo and Dahomey 1608–c.1800 These extensive notes are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics / areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. They give peace of mind that every corner of the specification/syllabus has been covered. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

These detailed course / revision notes were specially written to give OCR A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Unit Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853 British Period Study: British Government in the Age of Revolution 1783–1832 a) Pitt the Younger b) Lord Liverpool and the Tories 1812–1830 c) Foreign Policy 1783–1830 d) Parliamentary reform and the Great Reform Act 1832 Enquiry Topic: Peel and the Age of Reform 1832–1853 a) Peel and the Conservative party 1832–1846 b) Peel and social reform 1832–1846 c) Peel and pressure groups These extensive notes are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics/areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. They give peace of mind that every corner of the specification/syllabus has been covered. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson takes students through the basic differences between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Greek Temples. HD examples are included of a variety of temples from each ‘order’ of Greek Architecture. Blank templates are included so students can have a go at drawing their own columns for each order. A differentiated homework task is included at the end of the lesson to encourage further research and thinking. This lesson would be ideally suited to KS4+5 students who are studying Greek architecture for whatever reason for the first time.

This lesson is aimed at getting students confident in answering a 8 mark 'chronological narrative' question for the new AQA GCSE paper. For this lesson it is assumed that students will have studied events in Cuba from 1958-1962. The lesson starts with four maths problems - how long would different US cities have to react to a MRBM strike from Cuba (it gives them the speed of the missile - and they aren't too hard!) Students remind themselves of the key events in the 'Cuba story' and attempt a timed 8 mark question titled: 'Write an account of how events in Cuba led to an international crisis'. 3 different model answers are provided (4, 6 and 8 out of 8) and as the teacher you can decide who gets which one. The students highlight information and key phrases they could have inclided but didn't and then use that to make a second attempt at answering the question, A student friendly mark scheme is then included so students can self assess both of their answers and explain why the marks awarded to both were different. Hopefully the progress is very evident! The lesson ends with a slide where students are encouraged to match their knowledge/learning to abstract images. As the teacher you can then question them to extend their thinking.

This lesson is designed as a stand alone lesson for students of any age 13+ who studies Herodotus. It acts as a great introduction, covering who he was, what he was writing and why he was writing it. The lesson begins with a series of images asking students to try and work out what the lesson will be about. In order to demonstrate progress the same images are used at the end in a plenary where students are encouraged to show how each image links to their learning. The lesson proper begins with a discussion of what ‘accuracy’ means based on students coming up with their own synonyms. Students are then introduced to who Herodotus was through a handout (included as a slide within the .ppt file) which has a literacy focus and some challenge questions attached. A short passage from Herodotus’ History is then included with students being encouraged to draw inferences from the passage (with prompt questions down the side to promote discussion). Students then address issues such as ‘how could Herodotus possibly know this happened’? etc. There is another handout (included as a slide) explaining the degree to which Herodotus is accurate and students plot Herodotus’ accuracy on a target (based on their own opinion, formulated throughout the lesson). A link to the TEDed video discussing Herodotus is also included with encouragement for students to add to their notes and then finally (before the plenary) there is a task where students have to agree or disagree with a ‘verdict’ given by a Historian on Herodotus’ accuracy/reliability.

This lesson is aimed at KS3/4 students embarking on a study of Alexander the Great. It was designed with the OCR Ancient History Spec in mind but can also be used as a stand alone lesson as its aim is to introduce students to the debate surrounding Alexander and his ‘greatness’. The lesson begins with a quick-fire drawing game based on the Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. Students are then given Mary Beard’s views on Alexander and discuss whether she believes Alexander is ‘great’ etc. It then moves onto a look at a timeline of his life with students encouraged to identify what might have been they most significant events in his life and why. There is then a task where students have to decide whether key events in his life were either positive or negative and draw conclusions about his greatness from this. They are then encouraged to compare their analysis with Mary Beard’s opinion, followed by Philip Freeman’s. The final task involves looking at a map of Alexander’s empire at the time of his death and the routes he took. Students then use this to feed into their gradually evolving opinion on Alexander which they can explain at the end and link to the lesson’s success criteria. This lesson should ideally cover around 2 hours, but could be reduced to 1 if necessary. Reading is included which students do as homework following the lesson with an accompanying short written task.

And how well did each one rule the Persian Empire? This lesson has been designed as an ‘opening’ or ‘overview’ lesson for OCR Ancient History GCSE students, embarking on their study of the Persian Empire/ Achaemenid kings (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes). It has also been used however as a stand alone lesson, for example as a lesson in a thematic unit on different empires throughout history. The starter introduces students to the geography of the Persian Empire in relation to Europe and the rest of the world - giving students some context. The main bulk of the lesson is based around an activity involving four A5 cards. Each A5 card has details about each king. Students identify positives and negatives of each king from the cards and then evaluate the relative success of each one in relation to the others. The information cars are included as slides within the PowerPoint, ready to be printed. Students are then advised how to apply the knowledge they have gained to the June 2019 summer exam essay question through the use of visuals, followed by an effective plenary involving students judging their own progress (with your support) using ‘post-it’ notes. This lesson is designed to last an hour, unless you elect for students to attempt the exam question, in which case it will run to nearer two. The resources are very accessible are designed with the research behind ‘dual-coding’ in mind. The resources do not shy away from some ambitious vocabulary though and teachers may find spending some lesson time unpicking some of this vocabulary useful.

These Graphic Organisers are ideal for Ancient History 9-1 GCSE. Quality resources for the GCSE seem scarce and this is me trying to rectify that a bit. My students really appreciate these. The organisers give enough ‘knowledge’ or ‘information’ for students to get a good grade at GCSE - a 4/5/6 depending on how much information they can retain. We print these out A5 size and stick them in the middle of our books and as I am teaching students will annotate these sheets according to how much extra information they need to get above a 4/5/6. The visuals are a huge help and icons and schemas are repeated as and when appropriate across the organisers which makes pupils feel secure and build a mental image of all the content - something I had found challenging to help them create before using these. The GOs really help tell the ‘story’ of Cyrus the Great’s reign Topics included: Cyrus’ birth and early life Cyrus’ conquest of Astyages and the Medes / Media Cyrus’ conquest of Croesus and the Lydians / Lydia Cyrus’ conquest of Nabonidus and the Babylonians / Babylon The importance of the Nabonidus Chronicle, Cyrus Cylinder and Herodotus as sources The foundation of Cyrus’ city at Pasargadae Cyrus’ death at the hands of Queen Tomyris and the Massegatae

This booklet is written in such a way that it can act as a teacher’s guide to the main events during the reigns of each king of Rome, or as a student guide. My students found it super useful because it brings what they have learnt about the kings together into an easy to understand, clear narrative. This is really useful for students to read both before and after they have studied each king individually, as it helps provide context for more detailed work and a useful summary to help embed learning. As a firm believer that story telling can aid knowledge retention, I created this for my students so that even the weakest can have a mental picture of all seven kings and their successes and failures. This document was created with OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE in mind (Foundations of Rome) but equally could be used by anyone needing a concise and engaging summary of the Roman Regal Period from Romulus through to Tarquinius Superbus.

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct. it starts with a couple of video clips recapping Sicinius’ reasons for calling for the First Plebeian Secession (Secessio Plebis) and it then tells the story of the Secession itself - followed by a debate surrounding whether it actually achieved anything meaningful. Throughout there are pertinent questions posed to students on screen that they can answer verbally or in written form and are great for AfL - there is also a 15 mark exam question at the end (based on a passage from Livy that is included) with sentence starters and a suggested plan, looking at how the relationship between the Patricians and Plebeians had changed between the exile of Superbus and the First Secession - analysing the second order concept of Change and Continuity which is one of the key second order concepts that 15 mark questions look to address in the exam. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the First Secession that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… There are also embedded video clips (hence the large file size) outlining the patron-client relationship in Rome, the origins of the Conflict of the Orders and a summary of the Plebeian Secession. Thanks for taking a look!

Any students trying to study the origins of Rome are met with the difficulty of marrying mythology and archaeology. The mythology of Aeneas and Romulus and Remus often takes precedent, leaving students without any contextual knowledge about what Italy was actually like at the time. This lesson helped my students address this issue. By teaching this lesson in between an ‘Aeneas’ and a ‘Romulus and Remus’ lesson, they could much more easily recall the key details of both stories - thanks to the contextual knowledge of Italy that this lesson provides. Students are introduced to all the different prominent cultures and peoples of Bronze Age Italy, including many like the Sabines and the Latins who Rome will come into conflict with shortly afterwards. this lesson provides a snapshot of Italy in 1000 BCE, which provides the handle students need to hang their subsequent learning about early Rome on. The lesson is dual coded to reduce cognitive load and videos are included (hence the large file size) at appropriate points to provide extra exposition.