A lesson and assessment for teaching students how timelines and chronology work. This lesson includes diagrams, practical examples, and plenty of opportunities for students to practice these essential skills . There is then a short printable quiz to assess understanding. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with clear and uncluttered slides. Discussion notes are included in the notes section on the power point for further understanding.

A series of 7 lessons aimed at KS3 leading up to answering the assessment question- How Historically Significant is the Silk Road? This is intended as an opportunity to consider the medieval world outside of Europe and expand the breadth of students historical understanding. It is also an opportunity to introduce students to some key ideas about the economy and trade. Individual lesson topics are as follows: What was the Silk Road Timeline of the Silk road Trade on the Silk Road Slavery on the Silk Road Genghis Khan and the Silk Road Significance of the Silk Road Assessment Preparation Some of the key historical skills developed in these lessons are: chronology, comprehension of interpretations, inference from evidence, identifying and applying significance criteria, and essay structure. The assessment is intended to introduce students to the idea of writing about historical significance using significance criteria and how to structure an essay around those criteria. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with consistently formated and uncluttered slides. Teacher notes and are included in the notes section on the PowerPoint for elucidation.

A fun and interactive game to demonstrate how the Wall Street Crash impacted people involved in trading shares. This lesson was created to help students understand how so many people were involved in trading shares in the 1920s and how people were caught by surprise when the stock market crashed. The lesson includes key words; an explanation of how people made money through dividends and speculation; a game where students buy and sell stocks to try and make money; an explanation of the Wall Street Crash and a summary to check understanding. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with consistently formated and uncluttered slides. Teacher notes and are included in the notes section on the PowerPoint for elucidation.

A lesson to help students understand the historical value of a biased source. This lesson was created as a stand alone intervention to a problem with student source analysis. However, it also works really well as part of a series introducing students to source analysis in KS3. Students will look at an example of a very biased (and funny) source about the outcome of a battle and then complete several activities to see how a historian might be able to infer a lot of useful information from a biased source. This lesson was created to help deal with the issue of students dismissing the historical value of sources due to bias. I found many students writing analysis like: “this source is not useful to a historian because it is biased so can’t be trusted.” The aim of this lesson was to encourage a deeper level of analysis about what can be inferred from a biased source when understood in the context of its provenance rather than dismissing the source off hand. It is also designed to show students how a historian might approach a biased source and how much historical insight is possible based on such a source. The lesson is themed around Ancient Egyptian history but does not actually require any prior knowledge nor is the subject matter particularly relevant to the overall learning as the intention is to improve students conceptual understanding. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with clear and uncluttered slides. Discussion notes are included in the notes section on the power point for further understanding.

A quick game for students to understand what a year might look like for a Medieval peasant and how factors like the weather and luck impacted their lives. This game requires no equipment There are also some reflection questions for student to consider what they have learned about the lives of medieval peasants. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with consistently formated and uncluttered slides. Teacher notes and are included in the notes section on the PowerPoint for elucidation.

Lesson series focusing on Jack the Ripper. Includes a lesson in which students pretend to be investigators and follow through the Whitechapel murders as though they are police in H division, looking at the evidence as it comes in and making structured notes on the crimes and their effect on the people of Whitechapel as well as the way that the crimes are reported in the press. Resources are also available for students to look at the main suspects in the crimes. Also includes a lesson on living conditions in Whitechapel in order to help students understand the social context of the Whitechapel murders. This lesson series provides opportunities for students to analyse sources, look at the causes of crime in Whitechapel, understand police methodology in the 19th century and consider the impact of the press on the police investigation. The hope for this lesson series is that the students engage with the historical circumstances surrounding the murders in Whitechapel rather than simply seeing it as a “true crime story”. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with clear and uncluttered slides. Students tend to enjoy the creative aspects of the tasks as well as the opportunity to examine the Whitechapel murders from the perspective of the police investigation and find the experience immersive and engaging. Ideal for students in KS3 or for a unit on Crime and Punishment at KS4.

A series of around 8 lessons designed for year 7s. The lessons are designed to be fun and engaging with activities that include moving around the classroom and physical engagement. This is balanced with a collection of comprehension, description, analysis and judgement writing tasks to help develop students’ basic historical writing skills. Several of the lessons include different possible tasks The lessons are as follows: L1: Claimants to the Throne L2: The Battle of Stamford Bridge L3: The Battle of Hastings L4: Consolidation of Power L5: Motte and Bailey Castles L6: Building Castles L7: Attacking and Defending Castles L8: The Feudal System These lessons are ideal for students in KS3. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with clear and uncluttered slides. Resources are also provided with dyslexia and EAL versions for greater accessibility.

A fun and interactive game to introduce students to some of the key defensive features of castles and how a siege works. In this lesson, students design their own castle. Then, there is a siege and they can see how the castle they have designed stands up to a variety of siege tactics. This lesson includes: How and why castles changed over time Key terminology A work sheet for designing the castle An interactive siege scenario with images and description All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with consistently formated and uncluttered slides. Teacher notes and are included in the notes section on the PowerPoint for elucidation

A lesson on King John where students analyse a fun historical interpretation and decide how convincing it is. The written activity is fully scaffolded with a writing frame and success criteria. The skills used in this lesson are designed to encourage students to engage with ideas around how convincing an interpretation is within the context of their prior knowledge. All resources are provided in a dyslexia friendly font and with clear and uncluttered slides. Discussion notes are included in the notes section on the power point for further understanding.