Increasing the thinking ratio – four ideas for creating an atmosphere of deeper thinking at the start of the lesson.

After an overhaul of our performance management process, my brilliant school has chosen to move away from outcome-based targets and instead require teaching staff to get involved in a coaching programme based on Chris Moyse’s ‘improve not prove’ model. As a result our staff have been tasked with spending one academic year working on a...

Mapping Elizabethan England

Map resource for teaching religious tensions in England during the reign of Elizabeth I through the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her imprisonment, the geographic religious divisions of the nation, the Catholic plots, and the trial and execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Main teaching resource on slide 1, original editable map on...

Mapping the Korean War

Map resource for teaching the causes and outbreak of the Korean War. Download

The year that never was and the year that will always be.

This year was supposed to be the euphoric crescendo to a symphony that had been slowly-building over the past five years. The members of the orchestra had slowly assembled, tuned up their instruments, practiced and perfected their parts both large and small, and finally gathered to perform to what all hoped would be a standing...

How close did Britain come to achieving ‘true democracy’ between the Great Reform Act and the Equal Franchise Act? Scheme of Work.

One of the positive outcomes of my time away from school as a result of the Coronavirus lock down is that it has finally given me a chance to plan a thematic 'Power and the People' inspired unit for our changing KS3 curriculum. Having decided as part of our curriculum curation that we wanted to...

‘Fingertip Knowledge’: building a system to bridge the knowledge gap.

After nearly three months only open to the children of key workers, the coming weeks will see secondary schools across the country begin to very slowly try to adjust to a ‘new normal’ as students return to socially distanced classrooms. Whilst students and teachers alike will face innumerable challenges with a return to education, one...

Guess Who? – Health and the People

PowerPoint template for a Guess Who game focusing on the key individuals from AQA's 'Britain: Health and the People' GCSE specification. (All people mentioned in the spec are present, as are a few additions) To play, you will need to print the red and blue game boards, a pack of cards for each player/team and...

History Flix A-Level Film List

Based on J Mosley’s brilliant History-Flix idea and template shared on Twitter last week, here is my adapted version for AQA's American Dream: Reality and Illusion A-Level History unit (2Q) Feel free to download/adapt. Click here to download:Download

History-Flix GCSE Film List

Based on J Mosley's brilliant History-Flix idea and template shared on Twitter last week, here is my adapted version for the following AQA GCSE History Units: America: Opportunity and Inequality - 1920-1973 Conflict and Tension in Asia - 1950-1975 Britain: Health and the People - c.1000 to Present Day Elizabethan England - c.1568 to 1603...

Vietnam Timeline of Public Approval

After seeing some brilliant dual-coded timelines, and inspired by Greg Thornton's work, this timeline traces the key events of the Vietnam War mapped as closely as possible to data from Gallup Polls of the Johnson and Nixon administrations on public approval. Students will be asked to add key detail to each event on the timeline...