A higher ability Year 7 lesson on the impact of the Vikings on Britain. Begins with a discussion of historical significance, and progresses to a card sort and a graphical representation of the significance of different impacts that the Vikings had. Was an observation lesson judged outstanding.

The second lesson in a mini scheme of work on Qing China that explores how the Manchu tribe were able to overthrow the Ming Dynasty and take over power. This lesson not only explores the key events in that process, but examines continuity and change from the Ming Dynasty before it through a card sort and analysis activity.

A KS3 Yr8 lesson on the Gin Craze that fits in as a bit of light relief to a unit on the industrial revolution. The lesson is based around Hogarth’s Beer Street and Gin Lane cartoons, and could be extended to fully utilise the source information provided.

A Year 7 lesson that could go at the beginning of a Crusades topic on why Jerusalem was significant in the middle ages. The lesson includes a fact finding activity about Jerusalem and a guided analysis of Pope Urban’s speech.

A Year 9 lesson that analyses the controversy of the sinking of the Titanic using a modern day parallel between that and the Grenfell Tower disaster. Students begin by reading two different articles about Grenfell, and then use them to come up with criteria for what makes an event controversial. These are then applied throughout the lesson, as the students sort through factors that made the sinking of the Titanic controversial, and to draw comparisons to modern day disasters and controversies such as Grenfell. Rated outstanding in an observation.

A year 9 lesson on how the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to the First World War.

This is an introductory lesson to a mini Year 8 scheme of work on Qing China - within this lesson, the students will compare what events are going on in European history against those in Qing China to give them an overview of the time period grounded in their prior knowledge of European history.

This is the final lesson in a mini scheme of work on Qing China which focuses on the Opium Wars. Within this lesson, the students will: Learn about what opium is and why it was historically significant How the trade in Opium impacted Qing China Create a storyboard of the First Opium Wars Analyse what this event tells us about Anglo-Chinese relations Debate the ethics of the issues raised in this conflict. This lesson would also work well as a standalone lesson in a broader scheme of work about Britain’s empire in the 19th Century.

A Yr8 Civil War lesson on whether or not Parliament were right to execute Charles I in 1649. This is at least two lessons’ worth of material: in the first lesson, students categorise justifications for and against executing Charles, and then evaluate and analyse the reasons behind the decision. The pupils then go on to create a newspaper article (“The Execution Special”) from either Parliament’s or the Royalists’ perspective about what happened, why and whether it’s good for England’s future.

A really interactive Year 8 lesson on the causes of the English Civil War. Students work in groups of four and make a number or decisions based on Charles’s reign as King and see whether or not they would make the same mistakes as him in the build up to the Civil War. Whiteboards are essential! This is easily two lessons’ worth: one entire lesson for discussion, the second to finish it off and construct a timeline of events.

This is the third lesson in a mini scheme of work on Qing China, in which students learn what life was like under Qing rule. Within the lesson(s), the students explore what life would have been like for different groups of people in the Qing Dynasty through the studying of a number of different primary sources, which then leads into a research project on a “Guide to life in Qing China”, for which there is also resources attached.

This is the fourth lesson in a mini scheme of work on Qing China, in which students learn about how law and order worked under the Qing Dynasty and how that compared with European law and order. Within this lesson, the students: Begin by comparing what they know about law and order in Britain to what they can infer from a number of sources about law and order in Qing China. They then create a diagram to illustate how the Qing justice system worked. They then do a fun little activity where they try and match Qing punishments to crimes! There is also an activity that begins to explore how Confuscian principles impacted the Qing legal system. The lesson ends with an Autumn Court scenario where the students decide what punishment fits the crime given to them. Overall this is at least two lessons’ worth of material, and was great fun when I tried it out with my class!

A Year 9 lesson that explores the impacts that the Second World War had on British civilians on the Home Front. This covers effects such as rationing, evacuation and also the broader impacts on British society that resulted from WWII.

A nice Year 8 lesson on whether or not Cromwell was a hero or villain. The students begin with a discussion about what his statue outside Parliament tells us about him as a man, and then progress to sorting out different reasons for each opinion through a card sort/categorisation activity, and then finish off with a mini team debate.

An activity and resource designed for A-level politics students that gets them comparing direct and representative democracy, along with their theoretical advantages and disadvantages - topped and tailed with some discussion activities revolving around the use of referendums and direct democracy - used for the Edexcel exam board.

A Year 9 lesson on conditions in the trenches, beginning with a story about the mud at Passchendaele, an analysis of what made trenches such an effective system of defence in the first place and then an evaluation of what trench conditions were like and the biggest dangers a soldier on the front line would have faced.

A KS3 Yr8 lesson that explores inventions and mechanisation in the industrial revolution, with differentiated card sorts and an optional dragon’s den activity at the end! (Could easily be turned into 2-3 lessons).

A GCSE Lesson on how Antisemitism escalated between the years 1933-41 in Nazi Germany using the incredible diaries of Victor Klemperer to exemplify what happened. Students start the lesson looking at different propaganda pieces targeting different minority groups, which leads to a discussion of why the Nazis persecuted specific minorities in the first place. Their focus is then directed specifically onto how Jews are increasingly persecuted throughout 1933-41. Students then have to try to match up the diary extracts to the year they think they were from and theorise about the nature and progression of Antisemitism and persecution in Nazi Germany. This is then finalised by creating their own chronology of Klemperer’s life, with lots of discussion along the way about what the extracts show us about persecution in Nazi Germany and what the key years and turning points are in the treatment of the Jews.

An introductory lesson to the Edexcel Gov and Politics A-level course. The students discuss recent current affairs that illustrate that democracy is potentially overrated, and are then given a scenario of setting up a new government on a desert island. Prep for that takes one lesson, the next lesson is them presenting their island governments with the rest of the students peer assessing their ideas.

A lesson that explores the significance of the Battle of Britain in the context of WWII, and why it has been remembered as such an important moment in British history. Higher and lower ability categorising sheets attached.