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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
These lessons focus on Elizabethan society from wealth, status and the latest fashions of the time, an analysis of the Elizabethan theatre and Tudor exploration and trade.
There is also a lesson for the Historic Environment Questions of 2023 on Sheffield Manor Lodge.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
Each lesson aims to challenge the students and focuses on how to answer a GCSE practice question set in the exam.
These range from how convincing is the source, write an account and how significant.
For further assessment materials, please visit the AQA website for specimen questions and answers.
The lessons are as follows:
L1: Wealth Status and fashion
L2: Elizabethan Theatre
L3: The Golden Age (free resource)
L4: Poverty and the Poor Law of 1601
L5: Famous explorers (focus on Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh)
L6: Planning the Spanish Armada
L7: Planning for the Spanish Armada
L8: Defeat of the Spanish Armada
All the resources include suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
This bundle has been designed to meet the National Curriculum requirements at Key Stage 3 History for women’s suffrage as part of the theme, ’challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day.’
It can however be used as a springboard for teaching at GCSE, particularly if you are teaching AQA Power and the People or OCR Explaining the Modern World.
Each year I cannot wait to teach this fascinating topic. It also never fails to ignite the excitement and interest of the students studying this part of history.
From the controversy of universal suffrage and the franchise, to how women were treated in society in the 19th century, the questionable suicide of Emily Davison to the militant actions of the Suffragettes including the Cat and Mouse Act, the use of Propaganda and their involvement in World War 1.
Moreover this bundle addresses key historical skills. How did World War 1 show change and continuity for women? What were the causes and consequences of the industrial revolution on universal suffrage? What were the similarities and differences in the actions of the Suffragists of Millicent Fawsett and Suffragette ‘Deeds not words’ of Emmeline Pankhurst? What was significant about the imprisonment of the Suffragettes and force feeding or the death of Emily Davison?
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 as follows:
L1 Dying for the vote
L2 An introduction to the Suffragettes
L3 Suffragists and Suffragettes
L4 Emily Davison – martyr or fool?
L5 Propaganda and the Cat and Mouse Act of 1913
L6 The impact of World War 1 on women’s rights
L7 The Roaring Twenties
L8 How far have women gained equality?
(+ Key Word History Display)
Each resource comes PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
These 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.
This bundle addresses key historical skills on Norman England from the outset. Using history enquiry and evidence, student will find out who William the Conqueror was and how he established and maintained his rule in England. Moreover, what were the causes and consequences of Castle building throughout the British Isles? What were the similarities and differences between the role of the Church, monks and nuns and Doom Paintings? What was significant about the Black Death and its effect on the population of Britain and Europe and how dangerous and unhygienic were Medieval towns?
These skills are addressed in each of these lessons on Norman England 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 William the Conqueror
L2 Castles (+attacking a Castle game)
L3 The Domesday Book
L4 The Feudal system
L5 The Church (free resource)
L6 Doom Paintings
L7 The Role of monks and nuns (free resource)
L8 Medieval Towns
L9 The Black Death
L10 Crime and Punishment
L11 The Bayeux Tapestry’
L12 The Crusades
(+ Key Word History Display)
These lessons are designed to be fun, challenging, interactive and engaging.
I would strongly recommend the students undertake an assessment at the end of this unit, using GCSE exam style questions from your own chosen exam board.
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.
All the resources come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have created a set of resources for ‘the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day’ which focus on Civil Rights in America.
The aims of this bundle are to understand how black people were treated in the USA in the Twentieth Century and how they began to fight for their civil rights.
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 the continuity and change in the rights of black people in the USA, the causes consequences of the Civil Rights movement which followed, the similarities and differences of the tactics used, the significance of key figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and various interpretations about how far black people have achieved equality today.
Each lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and debate from the BBC and other sources.
The lessons are fully adaptable and can be changed to suit.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Abraham Lincoln
L2 Jim Crow Laws
L3 Little Rock Nine
L4 Emmett Till
L5 Rosa Parks
L6 Protesting
L7 Martin Luther King
L8 Malcolm X
L9 Ku Klux Klan
L10 Jesse Owens
L10 Civil Rights in America today
L12 Black people in the American Civil War (bonus lesson)
These 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 struggle between Church and crown, Magna Carta and the emergence of Parliament.
This bundle addresses key historical skills from the outset: What made a successful Medieval Monarch? Why did King Henry II want more power over the Church and why was he forced to publicly say sorry? What were the differences and similarities between the reigns of King Richard and his brother King John? What were the causes and consequences of King John signing the Magna Carta? What was significant about the Peasants’ Revolt or Edward II’s promotion of his favourites? Did Richard III really murder the Princes in the Tower?
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.
Moreover this bundle allows students to understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims on the reputations of King Richard and King John in the Middle Ages.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 Medieval Monarchs introduction
L2 The murder of Thomas Becket
L3 Was King Henry II really sorry?
L4 King Richard the Lionheart
L5 King John
L6 The Magna Carta
L7 The siege of Rochester Castle (free resource)
L8 The Peasants Revolt
L9 King Edward II
L10 Genghis Khan
L11 The Princes in the Tower (Bonus lesson)
These lessons are designed to be fun, challenging, interactive and engaging.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start and revisited at the end to show the progression in learning and who held the power in Medieval England.
All the lessons are differentiated and come with suggested teaching and learning strategies and link to the latest interpretations from the BBC and other sources.
The resources come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have created a set of resources for ‘the causes and events of the civil wars throughout Britain’ which comes under the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745 in the National Curriculum.
These lessons are also useful if you are studying this period at GCSE (such as AQA 9-1 GCSE Power and the People and OCR Explaining the Modern World)
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and debate from the BBC and other sources.
The lessons are fully adaptable in Powerpoint format and can be changed to suit. I have included a couple of free lessons to give an idea of what is being offered.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 Who was James I?
L2 The Gunpowder Plot
L3 Who was Charles I
L4 The Causes of the English Civil War (free resource)
L5 Cavaliers and Roundheads
L6 How did the two sides fight?
L7 The execution of Charles I
L8 Who was Oliver Cromwell
L9 Witches and Witchcraft (free resource)
L10 Charles II and the Restoration
L11 The Glorious Revolution
Additional lessons:
L12 Causes of the Great Fire of London
L13 Consequences of the Great Fire of London
( + Key Word History Display included)
Any reviews would be greatly appreciated.
I have created these set of resources for ‘Britain as the first industrial nation and its impact on society’ which comes under the ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain 1745-1901 in the National Curriculum.
These lessons are also useful if you are studying this period at GCSE (such as AQA 9-1 GCSE Power and the People and OCR Explaining the Modern World)
Pupils will learn the significance and impact of the changes in Britain as a result of the new inventions and be able to understand the causes and consequences of these.
They will learn key historical terms such as migration, entrepreneur, Luddite, industrialised and patent as well as being able to see the change and continuity of transport.
They will be given sources to analyse such as the evidence of child labour in the coal mines as well as the lives of Victorian women and make historical inferences from them.
Furthermore they will be able to write structured accounts and narratives of the changes as a result of Factory Reforms as well as answering GCSE style questions using structured thinking quilts.
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and ideas used by current history teachers.
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit. I have included a free lesson to give an idea of what is being offered.
I strongly recommend using GCSE style questions from the exam board and markschemes to assess the pupils at the end of this unit, which are always available on line.
The 14 lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 An introduction to the Industrial Revolution in Britain
L2 Why were people on the move?
L3 What were the industrial towns like?
L4 Transport in the Industrial Revolution
L5 Richard Arkwright – a case study (free resource)
L6 Factories and working conditions
L7 Coal mining
L8 Reform of working conditions
L9 Victorian crime and punishment
L10 Victorian prisons
L11 The Metropolitan Police Force
L12 Jack the Ripper
L13 The Luddites
L14 The Titanic (bonus lesson)
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
Conflicts and conquest, The American West c.1876-c1895.
This bundle is the third part in a series of lessons I have created for Edexcel GCSE 9-1 The American West, c.1835-c1895
Students will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the conflicts and conquest with changes in the farming industry, the cattle industry and settlement.
Students will learn about the establishment of law and order across the period. They will recognise the significance of key people such as Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and Benjamin Singleton.
They will study the destruction of the Plain Indians way of life with events such as the Wounded Knee Massacre as well as the Range Wars and extermination of the Buffalo.
Lessons will also target the cause and consequence of US government policy with the Dawes Act of 1887 and the declaration of the disappearance of an Indian Frontier.
I have dispensed with individual learning objectives for each lesson to focus throughout on a specific enquiry based question which addresses the knowledge and skills required for the GCSE questions and shows progression in learning required during this course.
Moreover it allows the students to critically think for themselves to decide who was benefitting from this rapid change to America as well as how and why.
The lessons are as follows:
L21 Changes to farming on the Plains
L22 Changes in the Cattle Industry
L23 Exoduster Movement
L24 Billy the Kid
L25 Wyatt Earp
L26 Battle of Little Big Horn
L27 Wounded Knee Massacre
L28 Range Wars
L29 Extermination of the Buffalo
L30 Dawes Act of 1887
For assessment purposes each lesson is accompanied by one of the three exam questions with help and exam tips given if needed. These can be completed in the lesson or for homework tasks if required.
The lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have created these set of resources for the History GCSE Edexcel Historic Environment for the British sector of the Western Front, 1914-1918.
The central question throughout these seven lessons is to find out how medicine developed throughout the conflict of World War 1. They are closely linked together and address all the content required for this unit.
Pupils will learn about the injuries, treatment and life in the trenches for the soldiers. Key ideas include:
The historical context of medicine in the early Twentieth Century and the move to aseptic surgery
The trench system and its construction and organisation
The context of the British sector including Northern France and Flanders
The problems with communications and infrastructure due to the nature of the terrain
The nature of wounds received and the conditions requiring medical treatment
The work of organisations such as the RAMC and FANY
The significance of the Western Front for experiments in surgery and new techniques used.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1: Introduction and the trench system
L2: Flanders and Northern France
L3: Move to aseptic surgery (free lesson)
L4: Deadly weapons and injuries
L5: Trench warfare and the problems of transport
L6: Helping and treating the wounded
L7: GCSE exam question practice
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and ideas used by current history teachers.
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint and can be changed to suit. I have included a free lesson to give an idea of what is being offered.
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.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact the Windrush Generation and Caribbean migration made upon Britain post World War II.
This lesson is the second part out of two focusing on Caribbean migration to Britain.
The lesson begins with the analysis of why people on board the Empire Windrush came to Britain. There is an accompanying passenger list excerpt, with differentiated questions for the students. Furthermore there is some source scholarship to complete on a newspaper report from the time.
As well as focusing on the positives of culture brought with this post war immigration and the current Notting Hill Carnival, there are also negatives to evaluate such as racism, prejudice and discrimination faced by many who settled in Britain.
Students are required to analyse key information before completing an extended writing exercise with key words and scaffolding to help if required. There is also a challenge to students to explain how these problems might and should have been overcome from the outset.
The plenary is in the style of a ‘Have I got news for you’ quiz.
There are video links to also accompany the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the upheaval of the lives of the indigenous peoples of Australia with the coming of the Europeans.
The lesson starts by looking at their customs and traditions and how these were quickly attacked through the attitudes and settlements of the colonists. A ‘Horrible Histories’ version of events is also scrutinised and questioned on its accuracy of Australian indigenous history .
I have included some comprehension questions and source scholarship using an extract from the brilliant ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera which explains the atrocities committed in Tasmania by the colonists.
Paintings from Governor Davey of Van Diemen’s Land can also analysed so the students are able to prioritise the most significant changes the colonists made to Australia and the legacy of the British Empire.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the impact of South Asian migration to Britain since the 1800s.
The lesson begins with case studies on the Lascars and Anyars and an analysis of their contribution and impact to British migration from the Indian sub continent.
There are four differentiated case studies on success stories from migrants in the 1800s and students will be required to decide who was the most successful, using some key criteria to judge the part they played.
Students are also required to put the events of migration from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh after the partition of India in chronological order.
They will finally complete some source question practice to explain the challenges faced by many of the migrants in multicultural Britain.
The plenary is a mood board which will allow students to express their knowledge as well as their judgements of migration.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact of the Bristol Bus Boycott and the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the fight against discrimination and on the British justice system.
This lesson is split into two parts.
The first part of the lesson focuses on the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963. Students will discover the causes and consequences of the decision by the Bristol Omnibus company to not hire Black or Asian workers as bus drivers or conductors.
Students will complete some source scholarship on the events which followed this discrimination and assess its impact with changes in the law on civil rights using some scaffolding to complete some extended writing practice.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the death of Stephen Lawrence. Students learn what happened to him and examine the subsequent flawed police investigation. They then analyse the main details of the Macpherson Report and have to desipher some key words in a literacy focus from the report, with help given if required.
There is a quick fire quiz to finish to consolidate the learning this the lesson.
There are some excellent video links to also accompany the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.