Teaching primary history in lockdown

The past year has been difficult, with children across the country sent home in March 2020. Teachers were in the unenviable position of attempting to provide an education for classes we were unable to have adequate contact with. There were children who had very little or no access to a computer, and others who were unable to rely on support from home. Enabling education to continue for all was a challenging task for teachers. While far from perfect and often relying on laptops being lent to some families, teachers were able to teach classes through daily live online lessons. However, technology does go wrong and so lessons were inevitably interrupted by shouts of ‘I can see you but can’t hear you’, and even when the computers were working perfectly, family pets or favourite toys held up to the camera could sometimes cause us all to be distracted! Other approaches included sending work home and making regular phone calls to ensure the well-being of their pupils.

But the question ‘Are we doing enough?’ continues to haunt us. How can we ensure that history continues to be taught well and continues to be relevant to the curriculum? In this article Kerry Somers uses her experience of the pandemic to provide some guidance on how she and some of her colleagues have tackled the teaching of primary history in the period of Covid...