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.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to understand how the British Government prepared for war and if they were successful in doing so.
The lesson begins by analysing a source and making inferences about the precautions to be taken in times of war.
Furthermore students will also have to decide the Government’s priorities by making judgements as to whether they are low or high, from ideas such as rationing to aid raids or war work to conscription.
They will then complete some research focusing on four areas: warning people of air attacks, the Homeguard, the use of gas masks and the blackout.
Students will plot what the government did or didn’t do on a grid and then after analysing and processing the evidence, justify their conclusions using a colour coding evaluation table as well as completing an extended written task.
The plenary requires students to answer differentiated questions to check their understanding.
It 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 retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the character and motives of Henry VII when he became King.
The lesson focuses on some crucial and important decision making for Henry VII upon his accession to the throne.
He has six decisions to make and students plot these on a grid giving their own judgements before finding out and evaluating how ruthless Henry was in charge.
The lesson hinges upon whether he was a Gangster or not (judged on the criteria at the beginning of the lesson) in an extended and differentiated written answer with a checklist for guidance.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This 33 page Revision Guide is broken down into 3 main sections: Germany 1890-1918, the Weimar Republic 1918-1933, Nazi Dictatorship 1933-1945
This Revision Guide includes practice exam questions and gives examples and tips on how to answer each.
It will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them. The questions target the main questions in the exam from interpretations and source analysis, cause and consequence, change and continuity, significance and evaluation.
The Guide also gives the students some useful mnemonics to remember some of the key details such as the Treaty of Versailles, problems in the Weimar, recover under Stresemann and Hitler’s consolidation of power for example.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students. The Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching. For home learning, each student taking GCSE History in my school has a copy assigned to them on the google drive and it is used frequently when using google classroom assignments, such as homework and revision for assessments.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit, It comes in both Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth £3.00 if you do.
I have also made similar revision resources for AQA GCSE 9-1 include Britain: Health and the People c.1000 to the present day, Elizabethan England c,1568-1603, Conflict and Tension and Power and the People.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of the lesson is for students to understand how Public Health reached a crisis point and why the Government was finally persuaded to make Public Health its priority from its previous laissez-faire stance…
Students will learn about 5 key figures (Chadwick, Snow, Bazalgette, Booth and Rowntree) and their attempts to change the health of the nation, from tackling cholera, miasmas and sewage, to the passing of Public Health Acts.
Moreover, students will evaluate why attitudes changed and how the Government realised a healthier workforce was needed to compete with challenges to the Empire from abroad.
Each of the five individuals are analysed and their work scrutinised to judge how effective their recommendations or improvements were, culminating in a decision as to who made the most significant contribution to Public Health.
The lesson includes worksheets for all the individuals, GCSE practice questions on factors and source analysis, quizzes and video links throughout.
There are also plenaries for each individual to check understanding and recap on their contribution to Public Health.
This lesson is fully resourced and can be delivered over two-three lessons.
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 comes in 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.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
This lesson aims to question the purpose of the League of Nations and why it was set up in the first place.
Students have a series of questions to think about and make inferred judgements on, before the answers are revealed.
As they analyse a number of sources, video footage and statements, they build up a picture of the purpose as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations.
This gives them a great foundation to build upon, as they scrutinise the League’s structure and responses to world crises in subsequent lessons.
Ultimately as they analyse the aims of the League of Nations, they will be able to evaluate if those aims were ever met throughout the course.
The plenary requires them to sum up what they have learnt with a focus upon the strengths of the League of Nations.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, some retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the importance of marriage for Elizabeth.
Students begin the lesson by recapping the importance of marriage for previous Tudor monarchs and the reasons for their choice of partner.
They then decide who is Elizabeth’s best suitor and what benefits they might bring politically to England
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work. .
There are some key questions posed to the students as well as judging the relevance of some historians points of view, such as Doran, Haig and Jordan. Some source scholarship can be completed with a themed linked plenary.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
American Civil RIghts
This lesson analyses and evaluates the part Rosa Parks played in the Civil Rights Movement.
Modest to the end, her one action inspired a generation and she is still talked about with reverence in American society today. (NB - Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe speech on 7th January, 2018.)
Students learn about Rosa Park’s background and events leading up to her refusal to move seats on a bus, brilliantly shown through some video footage as well as documentary evidence.
The learning tasks and the accompanying resources are differentiated to suit all abilities as students reflect and evaluate her most important significance to American society today.
Students also have the opportunity to use a bus to show in the windows the problems she faced (at the front and in the doorway) and what she achieved (in the back windows).
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This is the complete bundle in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c.1000-present.
I have taught this course for more than 20 years now and have decided to completely overhaul my lessons to bring them up to date with the latest teaching and learning ideas I have picked up and with a focus on the new 9-1 GCSE.
Furthermore I have dispensed with learning objectives to focus on specific enquiry based questions which address skills required for the GCSE questions.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades. They are also fully resourced and contain easy to print worksheets.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the periods studied from the impact of Hippocrates and Galen on medieval medicine to the new ideas of the Renaissance, the laissez-faire approach of preceding Governments through to modern day Government and the nanny state.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the development of ideas about disease as well as the causes and consequences of medical treatment throughout the ages
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example, surgery, Public Health and the introduction of the NHS whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the discovery and development of penicillin, the development of the welfare state and the influence of the seven factors in medicine.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 An introduction to the course
L2 Hippocrates and Galen
L3 The influence of the Christian Church
L4 Islamic Medicine (free resource)
L5 Doctors and surgeons in the Middle Ages
L6 Public Health in the Medieval towns
L7 The Black Death and the Plague
L8 Renaissance Medicine
L9 Medicine in the 17th and 18th Century (free resource)
L10 John Hunter
L11 Edward Jenner and smallpox
L12 Surgery in the 19th Century
L13 Florence Nightingale and hospitals
L14 Pasteur, Koch and Tyndall
L15 Public Health in the 19th Century
L16 Liberal Reforms
L17 Medicine and war (free resource)
L18 Magic Bullets and the Pharmaceutical Industry
L19 Penicillin
L20 The NHS
L21 How to answer the factor question
Please note that setting a full mock examination in class after completing each unit is strongly recommended (L1-7, L8-15 and L16-21).
All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
Unfortunately TES restrict bundles to 20 lessons and therefore please download Lesson 17 separately, which is a free resource.
The Holocaust
The aims of this lesson are to explain how the extermination camps were liberated by horrified allied soldiers whose shock quickly turned to anger.
Students are placed in the liberators shoes and have to decide how they would react, from cleaning up, to taking pictures and leaving things untouched to of course more violent extremes.
There is some excellent video footage to accompany the lesson, but please again treat with caution and care.
The second part of the lesson is a case study of Herta Bothe, a German camp guard who was convicted of war crimes by a British military tribunal.
Students are given certain facts about her and have to decide if the sentence was justified or whether as in the previous lesson she was an unfortunate victim of circumstance and just an ordinary woman completing the job required of her.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons in the bundle is to ask who was to blame for the holocaust?
Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around a lightbulb) and build up a picture of how difficult it is to blame a single individual or event for this catastrophe.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to understand why James lost his crown in the Glorious Revolution and how and why the lessons of his father were not learned.
Students will define what they think a Glorious Revolution might be, before learning about the reign of James.
They will have to judge how seriously Parliament saw him as a threat to the stability of the monarchy and how they could avoid turning the world upside down yet again.
They also have to assess the impact of the Magna Carta on the Stuart dynasty as well as completing a thinking quilt, defining key terminology such as Whigs and Tories under James II.
The plenary requires students to find and fix statements which will consolidate their learning from the lesson.
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.
The French Revolution
The aim of this lesson is to judge how terrible the Reign of Terror was in France.
The lesson begins with an chronological recap task of the events of 1789.
Students are introduced to Maximilien Robespierre and using the information provided have to explain the context and introduction of the Reign of Terror.
The main task is to rate how terrible some of the events were in the years 1793-5, by colour coding a ‘terror o meter’. For each event and explain why they have made these decisions.
Using these judgements, they will then complete a thinking quilt on whether they think the Terror was justified or not.
The ‘Are you a robot?’ plenary gets them to make links with the images all connected to the learning of the lesson.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies 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.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is understand how Henry consolidated his power at the beginning of his reign.
Students have to recall his previous problems before deciding how he would overcome these problems.
They are then given the solutions to his problems which they categorise into short and long term problems as well as financial and political security and the succession.
The plenary challenges student to think outside the box by linking key themes using the octagon to what they have learned in the lesson.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is decide how much of a threat Lambert Simnel posed to Henry VII.
Students are given the information about the role Simnel played and then have to categorise his rebellion into causes, consequences and events.
They are also challenged to think and justify who would have likely joined the rebellion and why, using a number of given examples of disgruntled lords.
Furthermore, they will be required to give a number of reasons for the lack of support for Simnel.
There is some exam question practice, complete with scaffolding, key ideas and a generic markscheme supplied.
There is an enquiry question posed and revisited to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is assess the threat Perkin Warbeck posed to Henry VII.
Students are required to plot the causes, events and consequences of his rebellion(s) as well as discovering others such as those from De la pole, the Cornish and Yorkshire rebellions.
They are also required to evaluate the biggest threat of all the rebellions to Henry, including Lamber Simnel, Lovell and Stafford rebellions studied previously.
There is a key word literacy plenary to complete before students undertake some exam question extract practice, complete with scaffolding, planning ideas, the key information required as well as a generic markscheme.
There is an enquiry question posed and revisited to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to assess Henry’s motives for wanting a divorce.
Students are reintroduced to some key terminology before they focus on the events leading up to the divorce and break with Rome. They will then be required to assess the significance of each of the prescribed events and justify their choices.
The second part of the lesson examines the causes of Henry’s divorce, whether that be his conscience, faith, desire for more power, financial motives or simply an infatuation with Anne Boleyn.
Students will be able to collate and evaluate this information to complete an exam practice question, with a writing frame and markscheme provided as well as some help and pointers if required.
The plenary tests their knowledge on who might have said what in this ‘King’s Great Matter’.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
Despite its idealistic aims, the League did have some successes particularly with its Commissions.
Although it is very easy to focus on its problems during the 1920’s, there is a clear theme in the GCSE exam to discuss the successes and well as the League’s failures.
With differentiated worksheets and key information about the Commissions to evaluate, students will at the end of the lesson be able to give examples and evidence to show and discuss the successes.
The plenary focuses on recalling their new found knowledge and introduces students to the idea of tackling the higher mark questions first, as in the exam.
There is a differentiated homework research task included if required.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, some retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
This lesson analyses the weaknesses of the League of Nations.
Students recap on some of its successes at the start and link images and films to its performance in the 1920s.
They then have to analyse and evaluate a list of sixteen statements and prioritise the reasons why it ultimately failed.
They are also given some GCSE exam practice questions with advice on how to answer them correctly, complete with model answers and how to plan using key skills in the exam.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, some retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Nazi economy.
I have always found this topic very dry; therefore I have tried to make it more accessible, more challenging as well as more relevant.
Students are taken on a journey of success, from video footage of the time to Goebbels propaganda, a fall in unemployment as well as the ‘Strength Through Joy’ scheme.
However further analysis, especially with aims of the Four Year Plan, shows the enormous cracks appearing in Nazi economic policy. A further look at the Home Front also proves how desperate Germans had become.
Students will complete their own chart and scrutinise the evidence to come up with their own conclusions before deciding if the Nazis truly brought economic success.
The GCSE question at the end focuses on which groups were more affected with Nazi economic policies and a self and peer assessment task is included to help the students mark their answers.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of this lesson is to determine how much of an impact the Renaissance had on Medicine.
Students study and analyse Vesalius, Pare and Harvey with their individual specialisms and contributions at the time of the Renaissance.
They then have to decide who has made the most important contribution to medicine and justify their decisions thinking about short, medium and long term significance.
Opposition to all three is evaluated as students decide who was being criticised and why.
There is a brilliant video link to bbc teach as well as learning activities to check understanding.
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 comes in 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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to examine the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and assess the German reaction to it.
Students begin by completing a missing word task to gauge the German ‘acceptance’ of the Armistice.
They learn about Wilson’s 14 points and in groups put themselves into the shoes of the Big Three to decide how to punish Germany, with prompts given for help.
Students also examine and analyse the terms of the Treaty and decide where German pride, economic and military power were challenged. They then have to determine how justified German complaints were against the Treaty and whether they were being too unrealistic.
This is followed up by some exam question practice, complete with a detailed markscheme.
The plenary asks them to think of answers for because, but and so questions to challenge thinking.
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
