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.
Norman Conquest
The aim of this lesson is to judge how powerful Doom Paintings were in Medieval Britain.
Students will be posed questions to answer, such as why was the Church so important in medieval society and why did people find it so hard to ignore its messages of doom and gloom?
Students will learn how Doom paintings were a powerful propaganda tool in the Church’s message over its illiterate masses.
Students will examine various paintings and video footage to give an in-depth analysis of their messages.
They will then be required to transport themselves into the medieval era and create an extended written piece to express the impact these Medieval Doom paintings were having on their way of life.
There is a peer assessment activity to complete and success criteria to help them if required.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter 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.
The English Civil War
The aims of this lesson are to analyse the Battle of Marston Moor and evaluate how the New Model Army won the battle, as well as to question if Parliament decided to kill the king from the start.
Therefore this lesson comes in two parts.
This first lesson focuses on how the two sides fought in the Civil War.
Students learn about the musketeers and pikemen, before analysing their role in the Battle of Marston Moor.
The students take on the job of Oliver Cromwell and make key decisions to win the battle, gaining points as they go along.
However they must be careful not to make mistakes and lose the battle with catastrophic consequences for Parliament and the New Model Army.
The second part of the lesson looks at an alternative view of the Civil War. Was the decision taken to kill the King early on, or did Parliament arrive painstakingly at this decision over time.
Students plot this on a graph before reaching and justifying their own conclusions, using some argument words for help if required.
A lightbulb is posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The aim of this revision bundle for AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People c.1000 to present is to help and thoroughly prepare students for the GCSE exam in the summer.
It contains the following:
A complete Revision Guide with 18 GCSE practice questions, model answers and tips on how to access the exam questions.
Flashcards to help improve recall, retrieval and retention skills. Each of the individuals from the course are summarised and explain the significance of each to achieve the higher marks in the GCSE exam.
A Summary Revision Guide which summarises all the course on two sides of A4. This is easy to print and great for the student who wants a quick refresh on the course content when revising.
A Health and the People work booklet revising the 4 main question types in the exam.
All the resources are in Word format so can be easily changed or adapted to suit.
Edexcel 9-1 Medicine in Britain, Thematic study and historic environment
This lesson aims to give the context of the British sector of the Western Front and the theatre of war in Flanders and Northern France, the Ypres Salient, the Somme, Arras and Cambrai. They will also discover that not all the fighting was done in muddy trenches as most students generalise about.
Students will learn why there was a salient around Ypres and the advantages this gave the Germans on the higher ground, including Hill 60.
They will analyse the horrific death and injuries suffered on the first day of the battle of the Somme and why this battle was initiated in the first place.
Furthermore they will investigate the tunnelling system around Arras and the hospital built there, now called the Wellington Tunnels.
Finally they are given information about Cambrai and judge the impact of the tank in the overall outcome of the battle.
Activities include retrieval practice, the use of video evidence, a prioritising exercise as well as discussion and debate.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The American West, c1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson aims to explore the conflicts between the US Government and the Plains Indians in the 1860’s. It is split into two parts.
The first part analyses Little Crow’s War of 1862 and the second part analyses the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.
Students are required to place themselves in the shoes of Little Crow and have to choose which decisions he took against the US Government as a result of the Dakota Sioux’s plight, which became more and more desperate.
This is completed in the form of a quiz where points are allocated for the right decisions taken by the students. Answers are given throughout if wrong choices are made with accompanying explanations.
There is a printable worksheet included on which they give information about his early life and the reasons for growing tensions with the US Government. The sheet also tracks the decisions made by the students and the points awarded for each decision.
At the end of the task, students will be keen to hear that the results are in and a winner announced!
In part 2 of the lesson a chronological exercise as well as questions around the impact of the Sand Creek Massacre will be posed to the students.
The plenary requires some critical thinking skills around causal equations.
There is some follow up exam question practice using the ‘write a narrative account’ worth 8 marks, with help given if needed.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some recall retrieval practice is also included linking key words together.
It comes in Powerpoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The aims of this bundle are to investigate the causes of the French Revolution, how it changed the lives of French people and its consequences for Europe and the Wider World with the rise of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars.
I have also created and used these lessons to challenge and engage students and to show how much fun learning about this part of European history really is.
By studying this unit, pupils will be able to make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends within this period of history by using an enquiry based question throughout all the lessons.
Students will learn and understand key historical skills throughout such as the change and continuity of the Government of France in the Eighteenth Century, the causes and consequences of the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the similarities and differences of absolute monarchs such as Louis XVI of France, and Frederick the Great of Prussia in comparison to George III of Britain.
They will also learn about the significance of the Tennis Court Oath, the Storming of the Bastille, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as different interpretations of Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre.
Finally they will create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response to claims that the Terror was justified, Britain had every reason to fear Napoleon or that Louis XVI deserved to be executed.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Introduction to the French Revolution
L2 The French Monarchy
L3 The Three Estates
L4 Louis XVI financial problems
L5 Tennis Court Oath
L6 Storming of the Bastille
L7 Execution of King Louis XVI
L8 The reign of Terror
L9 Maximilien Robespierre (free resource)
L10 Support for the French Revolution
L11 Napoleon Bonaparte
L12 Napoleonic Wars
L13 Legacy of the French Revolution (free resource)
All the lessons come with retrieval practice activities, differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
They are fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
I would highly recommend assessing students at the tend of this unit of study, using GCSE style questions from your chosen exam board.
If you have any questions about this unit, please do not hesitate to contact me via my shop for further information.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to decide Henry’s priorities on becoming King of England
Students have to think which were Henry’s most pressing problems, before being given some help and guidance. They then have to prioritise which four things would be paramount to him and explain why.
Using the information acquired, they can then begin to piece together which problems he faced and why, and plot this on a grid.
The plenary requires them to write down the questions to the answers provided during the lesson.
They are also introduced to a written answer to an exam question, which they analyse and evaluate before deciding which mark it could be awarded. There is some feedback from the exam board given here and a mark awarded.
They can also plan an answer to this question themselves, before looking at the exam commentary, with a writing frame provided.
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 to evaluate the role Henry VIII played in Europe and if he did indeed play third fiddle throughout.
Students begin the lesson by recapping Henry VII’s foreign policy and are also introduced to the new players in Europe in their respective countries.
They are given numerous facts and scenarios where Wolsey and Henry attempt to assert their authority and political craft in Europe, from which students decide how effective and far reaching their policies were.
They will be required to justify their decisions at the end and ultimately decide if they were major players in Europe or just pawns of France and Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor.
The plenary analyses an extract, from which students use their newly acquired knowledge to test its judgement.
There is some exam practice to complete with writing frame and markscheme to use if required.
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 rate the power of the Church under Henry VII.
To understand the power of the Church, students have to learn how it pervaded throughout peoples’ lives. They also have to comprehend the structure of the Church, from the Pope in Rome, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops and their dioceses as well as the ordinary priests, monks and nuns.
Students will also undertake a research task in groups within the lesson to discover the influence of the Church in politics as well as the underlying corruption at its heart.
Some exam question practice focuses on this corruption and a grid assessing whether the Church was in need of reform will go some way to help students answer the question. Some scaffolding, help and tips as well as a generic markscheme come as standard
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 GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to assess whether the war in the East was the main reason for the implementation of the Final Solution.
This lesson can be delivered over two, with the breath and depth of information covered.
Students begin with a recap of some key dates in their implementation of anti-Semitic policies. The significance of the Wannsee Conference is explained, with a comprehension task and timeline guide to examine in the move towards the Final Solution.
There are some key multiple choice questions to answer as well as some map analysis of the concentration and extermination camps in Europe.
Case Studies on Auschwitz and Ceija’s Story give context to the horrific crimes committed by the Nazis in this period.
The final parts of the lesson focus on Jewish resistance (with a colour coding activity to complete) as well as a note on the death marches and questions over who bears responsibility for the holocaust.
The lesson is quite literacy heavy and may have to be delivered over two lessons. There is some exam practice to be completed at the end, with a focused markscheme provided if required.
An enquiry question posed at the beginning of the lesson will be revisited throughout to track the progress of learning during the lesson and the subsequent unit of work.
The lesson is available in PowerPoint format and can be customised to suit specific needs.
It is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Elizabethan England 1568-1603
This is a Summary Revision Guide tailored to the AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England 1568-1603 unit.
It has also been revised to include the historic environment question for 2024 for the Americas and Drake’s Circumnavigation, with an emphasis on location, function and structure, people connected, design and important events connected to it.
The resource is in booklet form and is ideal for the student who wants a quick recap before the exam as it sets out all the main details in bullet form.
It is also extremely useful and cheap for printing and giving out when the students claim they have forgotten everything they have been taught!
I have included both PDF and Word formats so the resource can be edited and changed to suit.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson is to assess how ready Elizabeth was to become Queen
What was the young Elizabeth like and how did her background and upbringing prepare her to be a Queen?
Moreover how did the foundations of her life enable her as a woman to be strong in a man’s world?
This lesson attempts to examine her attributes growing up but also shows how luck and ruthlessness also played a later part in her life.
Students build up a picture of her early life through pictures, sources and video evidence before explaining her character and noting the problems she faced and how she overcame them from a young age.
Activities include a a chronology exercise, a true or false quiz, video and source analysis as well as using a tree to connect her early problems (branches) and character traits (leaves).
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.
Britain: Health and the People c.1000-present
These key individual flashcards aim to get the students thinking of key people and their significance in medicine.
I always find students have revised thoroughly for exams, but do not push their grades into the higher brackets as they focus on content rather than the individual’s impact and importance, particularly over time.
There are 36 individuals listed, Students can use them in class (I use them as starters and plenaries) or to take home and use for their own personal revision programme.
I also display them in the classroom (enlarged) and use when teaching this unit of study.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil Rights
This lesson starts with the Bob Dylan song ‘The death of Emmett Till’.
The question is posed as to why Emmett’s mother had an open top casket at his funeral?
Students are given sources to piece together the story before they find out what happened to him (the story is differentiated according to ability).
Embedded video footage of his short life from the time reinforces their learning.
Students then have a choice of answering some differentiated questions or completing an extended piece of writing.
The plenary questions the impact of his death upon the Civil Rights Movement and help is given on how students can justify their reasons.
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.
World War I
This lesson aims to analyse how the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark for World War 1 to start.
Students will question how frightening the assassination was and the speed of European countries to mobilise for war.
As video evidence is used to explain the events that led to the shooting in Sarajevo, an analogy is made to a bar brawl as students try to ascertain the causes of it and link these to the events which unfolded after 28th June, 1914.
Students also have to complete a chronological exercise of the events as well as deciding the personalities of the main countries involved.
The plenary is a catchphrase check (complete with music) on key words used in 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 retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War 1
The aim of this lesson is to question how frightening trench life really was.
This lesson begins with a familiar look at trench life. An analysis of sources, audio clips and prose using higher order thinking skills as well independent learning will bring students to the conclusion that trench life was extremely tough for soldiers.
A chance to write a letter home, before realising the problems of censorship, will suggest to students that soldiers had to struggle in the mud and squalor surrounding them.
However historians such as Dan Snow question how long soldiers spent in the trenches and discovered that in fact 45% of their time was spent behind the lines and in relative safety.
Therefore the overriding aim of the lesson of evaluating how frightening trench life was now becomes more apparent.
Finally the use of historical hexagons will challenge thinking and challenge students to link ideas together.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout the lesson and this unit of study 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.
Why was the slave trade finally abolished in Britain and her Empire and why did it take so long to achieve?
Why were arguments in the eighteenth century challenged so rigorously and overturned in the nineteenth?
Which people inspired its abolition and who was against this?
Students decide which arguments were being put forward to the plantation owners, racists, people who were ignorant and law makers to end the slave trade.
They then prioritise the most important arguments in challenging these peoples’ staunch perceptions.
The second part of the lesson is a case study of William Wilberforce. Through video, audio and source work, students build up a history of the great man and decide how and why he is significant (this is a differentiated task dependent upon ability).
The final part of the lesson uses an interactive spinning wheel with key words used throughout the course, which the students have to define and explain their links to slavery.
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.
The aim of this lesson is to analyse life in a slave plantation.
What was a typical day like? How hard was the work? Was it made easier by the invention of the cotton gin? How did they relax if at all in the evening and what were their living quarters like?
Learning tasks include comparing a day in their school life with the day of a plantation slave and recognising the hardships endured.
Students also have to use a number of sources, which are differentiated according to ability and challenge a statement which suggests a slave’s life wasn’t really that bad.
The plenary asks them to use four letters and come up with as many associated words as they can from their learning.
The lesson comes with a retrieval practice activity, suggested teaching and learning strategies and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
The Tudors
This is the first in a series of lessons I have created on the Tudors.
This lesson is broken down into two parts. The first part describes and explains the events surrounding the Wars of the Roses.
Students learn about the Kings involved and the battles fought through fun tasks, video evidence and role play of which they have to make choices on the victors.
With this new found knowledge they have to explain what they have learnt through a ‘talk like an historian’ quiz.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the previous Tudor perceptions of Richard III. Was he really a deceitful and cunning person, ‘a lump of foul deformity’ with a hunchback according to Shakespeare, More and Virgil?
Archaeological evidence from King Richard’s remains is analysed by the students to prove or disprove some of these popular ‘misconceptions’ about his posture and character.
Students are then challenged to write to the current Education Secretary to make sure correct history lessons are now taught about Richard III in secondary schools.
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.
This lesson is fully resourced includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This lesson aims to examine the reasons why King John quarrelled with his barons and ultimately was forced to sign the Magna Carta.
But on which terms was King John forced to accept?
Firstly students have to work out what the terms of the Magna Carta were.
Secondly students have to evaluate the significance of the Magna Carta in the short, medium and long term for King John, for future Kings of England as well as for us today.
They will use sources and video footage as well as retrieval grids and a true or false quiz to help them in their research,
They will also continue to plot the power struggle between the king, the church, the barons and the people in a sequence of lessons.
This lesson includes:
Fun, engaging and challenging tasks
Links to video footage
Printable worksheets
Differentiated tasks
Suggested teaching strategies
PowerPoint format, which can be changed to suit
