How do you enable creativity and empathy without loosing 'rigour'? The Integrated Planning Process Introduction - Rigour ‘v' enrichment. Despite loathing the term rigour, an empty word that has numerous definitions depending on who you speak to, many teachers, Head teachers and curriculum leaders are seeking ways of integrating and...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. A study of the local environment can make a vital contribution to children's sense of identity, their sense of place and the community in which they live. More importantly, a local study can enable children...

Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. Why teach children about architecture and the built environment? Because they shape the future and because they already change our architecture and define the public realm everyday through their actions. Learning about architecture and the built...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. ‘Would you like to go for a walk in the woods on the other side of the river? I asked my wife on a spring day in 1982. Happily she assented, and we drove off...

Sometimes, pupils complain that there is a sameness to history lessons. History though offers scope for all kinds of exciting and varied activities targeting the key concepts and processes of the National Curriculum. Over the years, the following list has been gathered showing this variety. It could be used as...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Historical enquiry requires reasoning. Even historical imagination depends on being able to evaluate a number of possible responses to an hypothesis and mastery of detail and argument. The high levels of thinking in history of...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated Museums are memory boxes. They contain artefacts that tell stories about people in the past. The creation of a class museum is a simple and effective way of bringing the past to life through investigation,...

Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references are outdated. Story is the crucial factor in children’s awareness of past times in their ‘mythic’ phase of mental development, see page 4. Everyone loves a story, stories ‘open out fresh fields, the illimitable beckoning of horizons to imagination…...

Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum. The section on using computers in particular is now outdated.  Buildings offer a fascinating insight into history. We live, work and shop in buildings of various descriptions. Some of these buildings are very new, others are very old. Frequently...

This section attempts to identify the principles for good history in primary schools both in terms of knowledge, skills, and understanding and how the teaching might be organised.