Course: Supporting SEND pupils in your primary history lessons

HA CPD course for history subject leaders in mainstream schools

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(Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window. Please read the HA CPD terms and conditions before registering)

Available dates

Spring term: Friday 14 March 2025, 9.30am–3pm (online)

What does the course cover?

Do you struggle to engage your lower attaining or EAL pupils in their history lessons? Are you finding it difficult to ensure and demonstrate progression in history with these pupils?

This full day course will give you strategies and approaches to adapt, adopt and try in history. You will be supported to think about and identify the needs of your lower attaining and EAL pupils and how you could adapt your teaching of history and your curriculum to suit their needs. It will introduce or revisit the implementation of a range of different strategies to support your lower attaining pupils, focused on general teaching, writing and the use of vocabulary in our history lessons.

  • Who is the course for?

    The course is aimed at history subject leaders in mainstream schools. The day will cover strategies for supporting both Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils.

    It will not provide all the answers, but you will leave the session with lots to think about and lots of practical ideas and advice to try in school and share with staff teaching history.

  • What are the learning outcomes?

    At the end of the course, you will:

    • - Have a clear understanding of a range of strategies you could use to support your lower attaining pupils in history
    • - Feel more confident about how you can adapt your history teaching to support their engagement and progress
    • - Leave with identified actions to help you achieve this

  • Why should I attend this course?

    According to Department for Education statistics, in 2020 there were 1.4 million pupils across the UK with identified special educational needs and this number is growing every year. Many of these pupils are in mainstream schools, where reporting shows pupils can have widely differing experiences and are more likely to have poorer outcomes relative to their peers. Ofsted has reported many strengths and weaknesses in SEND support. Among areas of weakness are a lack of curriculum well matched to pupil needs and effective collaboration between teachers, teaching assistants and parents.

    As evidence from the Education Endowment Fund supports, high quality teaching for pupils with SEND is often based upon strategies that most teachers will already have in their repertoires: scaffolding, explicit verbal interaction and instruction, cognition and metacognition, use of technology and collaboration.

  • What is the programme for the day?

    09.30–10.45  

     

    Introduction: The first session will be a broad introduction to the issues we face in our history lessons and what we can do to adapt our teaching. We will look at how we use our TAs and volunteers in history lessons as well as more general expectations and planning for ALL children. We will also consider working memory, cognition and meta cognition.

    11.15–12.30 

    Writing: In the writing session we will look at breaking down tasks and scaffolding support through writing frames. A writing frame used in an Anglo Saxons unit and suggestions for using visual images when teaching about significant people will be used. We will consider some alternatives to writing for children to use to demonstrate their understanding.

    12.30–13.30 

    Lunch

    13.30–14.30

    Vocabulary, Speaking and Listening: In the Vocabulary and Speaking and Listening session we will explore some approaches to helping pupils grasp new language and historical terms and how we can encourage discussions and recording their work in different ways. We will explore some activities and games that could be used to support your teaching, for example a game based on typical Romans’ vocabulary.

    14.45–15.00 

    Assessment and progression: In the final session of the day we will share ideas about assessment and progression and how these can be adapted, with time for questions and some problem solving to consider specific examples from the participants. We will also consider the latest Ofsted guidance on these issues.

  • Who is leading the course?

    The course is led by Sue Temple. Sue was a Primary and Early Years teacher for 17 years, including 10 years as an SEN teacher, before moving into initial Teacher Education as a Senior Lecturer in Primary History where she has led the History specialism at the University of Cumbria since 2004. Sue has also been a Quality Mark assessor for the Historical Association since the Quality Mark began, which has given her the opportunity to observe some excellent practice and ideas to share with you.

  • What does it cost?

    The course is charged at £205 for HA members and £285 for non-members (inclusive of VAT). Please note that Cademy will charge an additional fee if payment is made by card rather than invoice.

    To access the member price please provide your membership number when prompted. You must have a valid membership at the time of booking and attending the course. 

    Did you know? It is cheaper to become an HA member and access your tickets at the membership rate, plus a range of other benefits all year round. Find out more about Primary membership.

  • How do I take part?

    In the spring, the course will take place online over Zoom. If you book for the online course, while we strongly recommend participating live, if you are unable to attend for any reason a recording link will be made available. This will be emailed to all registered participants to access for a limited time period.

    Booking is now available via this link. Registration is via Cademy which opens in a new window. Please read the HA CPD terms and conditions before registering.

    For any enquiries, please contact events@history.org.uk.

What previous participants have said:

  • 100% of survey respondents would recommend the course to others
  • 100% said the course met or exceeded expectations
  • 100% felt their confidence to teach lower attaining and EAL students in primary history had improved

"A brilliant day with lots of discussion and practical ideas for how to support pupils with SEND."

"I came away with an understanding of how to teach SEND children and the whole class with new ways of analysing sources and presenting ideas"

"A very useful course with a great range of suggested activities to improve our teaching of history throughout the school."