Big Picture

Big Picture involves placing topics of study with a broader understanding of the past. This involves relating topics to the local, national, and world perspective together with their place in a broader understanding of the past.

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  • Assessment and Progression without levels

    Article

    The new (2014) Primary History National Curriculum is finally upon us. The first thing you might notice is that the level descriptions have gone. These were first introduced in 1995 and became the mainstay for assessing pupil progression and attainment in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 across schools in...

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  • What do we mean by Big Picture History?

    Article

    Perhaps the best way to start thinking about Big Picture history is to say what it is not - it is not about rote learning dates or remembering ‘famous people and events' - Alfred the Great, The Battle of Hastings, Henry VIII, Florence Nightingale ....and so on! This factual knowledge...

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  • The Maya: a 4,000-year-old civilisation in the Americas

    Article

    Obscured by the fame of the Aztec empire or shrouded by a veil of mystery, the cultural history of the Maya has generally been misunderstood by the British public. Maya civilisation developed in a territory the size of Germany and Denmark together (nearly 400,000 km2). This vast territory shows three...

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  • Britain's settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots

    Article

    Anglo-Saxons have been a part of the primary national curriculum from the onset so they may not be as unfamiliar to teachers as some themes. Many teachers also report that pupils enjoy studying them so there is clearly much in their favour. That does not mean, however, that all is...

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  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 68

    Article

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  • Britain from the Iron Age to Robin Hood

    Article

    ‘...if children are to ever fully appreciate history the development of historical time has to be central to our teaching methodologies' This lesson aims to provide an overview of this period, developing pupils' sense of chronology and their understanding of cause and consequence. The context for these ideas comes from...

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  • Curriculum planning: How to write a new scheme of work for history

    Article

    Please note: this article was originally written in early 2014 for schools needing to prepare schemes of work for the new National Curriculum coming into effect that September.   The implementation from September 2014 of the new national curriculum programme of study for history gives you a time-scale for reviewing, refreshing and resourcing your new scheme...

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  • The National Curriculum for History from September 2014: the view from Ofsted

    Article

    IntroductionWith the publication on 11 September 2013 of the final version of the revised National Curriculum for September 2014, subject leaders and classroom teachers could start to consider the implications of the proposed changes. For history at Key Stages 1 and 2, some parts of the programmes of study are...

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  • Using the back cover image: Windmill Hill

    Article

    The back cover image is a reconstruction of prehistoric life based on the English Heritage site Windmill Hill. Such images are of great value to the teacher in bringing the distant past to life, and in deepening pupil understanding of its historical significance. Using these sorts of illustrations can help...

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  • Story telling: how can we imagine the past?

    Article

    Story and its bedfellow narrative with their chronological spines are central to children ‘Doing History' and developing a sense of personal identity within a national context. Grant Bage raises the role of storytelling, using dramatic moments to develop understanding...

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  • Children's thinking and history

    Article

    Hilary Cooper outlines the main features of children's historical thinking in History. These ideas are reflected in the government's provisional plans for the 2014 NC for History...

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  • Teaching history as a national grand narrative

    Article

    There is no reason why highly sophisticated, intellectually challenging, creative and enjoyable ways to teach history to young children should not continue when a National Curriculum for History is based upon a country's Grand Narrative, know that knowledge, that can require knowledge of ‘facts' such as key dates, the names...

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  • OFSTED, primary history and creativity

    Article

    Co-ordinators concerns: OFSTED, primary history and creativity I'm told the emphasis in schools now is for a rigorous approach to history where the children are taught the main facts and features of history. I recall a time not so long ago when the whole curriculum was about creativity but surely...

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  • In My View: Creativity & History

    Article

    Introduction A great deal has been written recently defining what is meant by creativity in primary education. And much has been written urging us to ‘teach creatively'. Yet there had been no exploration of what teaching creatively means in terms of teaching history until a group of colleagues and I...

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  • A creative Egyptian project

    Article

    Ideally when teaching history, teachers will look to deliver projects that will engage and motivate, hopefully making the hard work of being creative stimulating and rewarding, based upon questioning, enquiry, investigation of sources and reaching conclusions grounded in the evidence.Ancient Egypt is one of those history topics which, because it...

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  • Creating the 'creative history' website

    Article

    Editorial note: The role of ICT in the Digital Age is a major, perhaps even, the major factor, in enhancing creativity in the learning and teaching of history. This paper illuminates another dimension of ICT in the Digital Age and creativity. It shows how a teacher's creativity  has produced a...

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  • Geosong: a transition project

    Article

    How do we engage young people with their Heritage, answer curriculum needs and make that big leap of transition from primary to secondary school that bit easier? English Heritage's Geosong treasure hunt website went some way to providing answers. What does the website do? Using handheld GPS devices, groups must...

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  • Museums, schools and creativity: How learning can be enhanced

    Article

    What do we mean by creativity?In the last few years there has been an emphasis on the ‘creative curriculum', ‘creativity' and ‘creative teaching and learning', but there has not always been a shared understanding of what this means. This article uses the definition from ‘Creativity - find it, promote it'...

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  • Thematic or topic based whole school curriculum planning

    Article

    Creative curricular planning With the National Curriculum under review, it seems that more schools are taking a creative approach to planning by delivering the curriculum through a focused theme or topic. This has allowed schools to take more ownership of the curriculum and has helped teachers become more innovative in their...

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  • Case Study: Creative chronological thinking

    Article

    Personal biographies I often ask groups to collect and record their own personal chronologies. They are asked to bring in evidence to tell the stories of their own lives or of the life of a relative, which they will then weave into a ‘photo book' story. The photo books become...

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