I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
These lessons are designed to enable students to think like real historians!
They build up mastery in the essential historical skills of inference, the use of sources and inference, chronology cause and consequence, interpretation and significance.
Baseline Assessment Test: This can be used to assess what students know and which historical skills have they acquired from primary school.
What is History: This is an ideal lesson to introduce the subject by focusing on the skills required by historians to investigate the past, including chronology and time.
Inference: Students will learn how to ‘read between the lines’ of evidence and developing the critical skills of drawing conclusions from clues in both written and visual sources. This lesson will also build their analytical thinking, essential for understanding past perspectives and motivations.
Cause and Consequence: Students examine how and why events occurred and the impact they had. This will encourage deeper thinking about the causes and effects of decisions and actions throughout history.
Interpretation: Through guided tasks, learners examine different views about the past and develop their own, supporting them with evidence. This will help them build evaluative skills and support extended argument writing.
Significance: Students are challenged to assess what makes an event, individual or development important, helping them in their future studies to make value judgments supported by historical criteria.
Historical investigations: The Anglos-Saxons. This lesson investigates why the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain and allows students to develop their reasoning and justify their conclusions. The Princes in the Tower lesson will encourage students to evaluate conflicting sources, question reliability and come up with their own evidence-based conclusions about this unsolved historical mystery.
These skills are not only vital for exam success, but are also transferable across subjects and essential for developing critical and reflective thinkers.
These lessons are perfect for KS3 and can be used as standalone skills lessons, revision tools or embedded into wider schemes of work.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 Baseline Assessment Test
L2 What is History?
L3 Historical Sources
L4 Cause and consequence
L5 Historical significance (X Factor)
L6 Historical Inferences
L7 Historical interpretations
L8 Historical Investigation - Anglo-Saxons (Free resource)
L9 Historical investigation – Princes in the Tower
The resources all come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to edit and change.
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
The aim of this lesson is to for students to understand how to make historical inferences from sources and why it is important to do so.
This lessons also helps students think critically about bias, purpose and perspective in historical sources. It also teaches them that official messages often differ from reality and that both types of sources are essential for a full understanding of the past.
Students begin by writing down their thoughts on inference, which many have learnt from primary school.
They are given a number of picture sources to make inferences from and are asked to explain why these inferences have been made.
The lesson also uses written evidence to evaluate as well using Samuel Pepys diary on the Great Fire of London.
Finally, students are required to make inferences on two different sources on the same topic . In this case I have used the role of ARP (Air Raid Patrol) wardens in World War II. They have to decide what inferences can be made from a poster and a diary entry and explain why they are so different as well as understanding and analysing the importance of delivering these different perspectives.
As there is a lot of information to examine throughout the lesson, answers and help are given throughout if needed.
This lesson will encourage debate and discussion by connecting the past to the present. It will also teach students how historians think and work, which is vital for taking their studies forward to GCSE History.
The plenary checks their understanding of inference and allows them to make conclusions about the past
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be edited and changed to suit.
AQA GCSE Elizabethan England, 1568-1603, Historic Environment Question 2026
This Bundle has been designed to help teachers and students prepare for the AQA 2026 Historic Environment study on The Globe Theatre.
Resource 1: This Revision Guide on the Globe Theatre includes 9 possible questions for GCSE exam practice and breaks down the main details and significance of The Globe into manageable chunks, using student friendly language.
Resource 2: As an introduction to the Historic Environment question for 2026, I have included a lesson on The Globe Theatre including GCSE Exam Question practice. This lesson uses model answers to enable the students to achieve the highest marks in their written work on this unit of study.
The resources come in Word and PowerPoint formats if you wish to edit and change.
I would welcome any reviews, which would be much appreciated.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603, Historic Environment Question 2026
This lesson explores the significance of the Globe Theatre in Elizabethan England and will prepare students fully for the historic environment question in 2026. This lesson has 38 slides and therefore is best to be delivered over at least two. The lesson has been revised since I first published it in 2019
Students will discover how the Globe became a major hub of entertainment, attracting audiences from all levels of society and helped shape the popularity of the English theatre. Through the works of playwrights like William Shakespeare, the theatre reflected the values, culture, concerns and politics of the time, making it a powerful mirror of Elizabethan society.
The lesson begins by examining two previous student answers, which students have to annotate and decide the marks they could award for each. They will show the common mistakes they make on this question from previous years. There is a simplified markscheme to consult as well as that supplied from AQA.
Two model answers are also analysed which will reflect the higher Level 4 marks awarded for a ‘complex explanation of the consequences leading to a sustained judgement’. Students are given tips and focus on how to achieve these higher marks.
Students are also required to fill in a grid to help them research the ‘5 P’s’, which focus on the main concepts of location, function, structure, design, people connected with the site, how the site reflects culture, values and fashions of the time and how the site links to important events and/or developments of the Elizabethans in the 16th Century. This will help them to gain the knowledge needed to write the question set from the exam board. The answer will also include the
Students are finally given a choice of 6 GCSE practice exam questions to complete with some scaffolding to help if required. Tips are given how to make a sustained line of argument rather than list the people, plays and the entertainment on offer from the Globe and other surrounding theatres.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be edited and changed to suit.
Any reviews on the resource would be greatly appreciated.
This Revision Guide on the Globe Theatre is aimed at students to help them study, revise and be prepared for the AQA Elizabethan Historic Environment question for 2026.
I have broken down the main details into manageable chunks using an amalgamation of P words including place, patronage, protests, popularity and purpose.
This guide has been revised from my 2019 version and these P words focus on the main concepts of location, function, structure, design, people connected to the Globe, the culture, values and fashions of the time and how the site links to important events of the period.
There is clearly a lot more information in the AQA guidance now included from 2019, such as the construction and function of the Globe, the surrounding theatres and their patrons, the famous actors and companies linked to each and the messages included in the plays written. I have added this to expand the Guide from 6 to 8 pages and considered the exam questions that may be asked.
Therefore, this Revision Guide on the Globe Theatre is perfect for busy teachers as it includes all the key information needed and is tailored to support students of all abilities.
Furthermore, with a strong emphasis on how the site connects to the broader themes of the Elizabethan era, this resource will not only save you hours of planning but also help students gain a deeper understanding of how to approach the Historic Environment question with clarity and precision.
The Guide comes in Word and PDF format and can be edited and changed if required. Please feel free to edit and adapt the guide if needed.
I would welcome any reviews on this resource, which would be much appreciated.
This fully resourced and engaging history skills lesson introduces students to the complexities of historical interpretations through two case studies.
It is designed to build critical thinking and source analysis skills; it helps students go beyond “what happened” to explore how and why historians disagree about the past.
I have included differentiated resources suitable for mixed-ability classes, clear learning objectives and an engaging starter activity to introduce the concept of interpretations.
Students focus on two detailed case studies with sources and viewpoints on How Henry VIII has been interpreted (tyrant vs. visionary king) and competing explanations for the fall of the Roman Empire (such as barbarian invasion vs. internal decay)
The lesson will promote deeper understanding of how history is constructed, encourage debate, analysis and independent though. It is perfect for observation lessons or simply introducing interpretations at KS3. There is no planning needed—just print the slides needed and teach!
The resource gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be edited and changed to suit.
The aim of this lesson is for students to understand historical significance and develop critical thinking skills.
To make the lesson more relevant today, I have called it the historical x factor. By the end of the lesson, students will move away from simply from knowing what happened to understanding why events and people matter.
The lesson also encourages students to question why some events, people or developments are remembered, whilst others, as with some acts in the music industry, are forgotten.
The lesson begins by questioning what is historical significance. Students can come up with their own criteria which they can then apply to key people.
The main task is to examine 6 influential male and female individuals in history. Students will judge their historical significance using the following criteria: changes they caused, importance at the time, lasting impact over time, their widespread effect on society and their relevance today.
This task is differentiated and will help students link to the criteria if needed. They can also work in groups and present to the class to judge the most influentially significant person.
The lesson will encourage debate and discussion by connecting the past to the present. It will also teach students how historians think and work, which is vital for taking their studies forward to GCSE History.
The plenary is some more critical thinking of the learning from the lesson with questions in the style of those used in the popular tv programme, The 1% Club.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be edited and changed to suit.
The aim of this lesson is to for students to understand the causes of events and their consequences.
This will help them gain valuable skills in historical understanding and enquiry. Furthermore, this lesson will help students distinguish between short-term and long-term causes, while identifying trigger points - the immediate events that sparked historical change.
Students begin by identifying causes of events. A categorising activity will enable them to organise causes into short-term (immediate events or developments and long-term (deep-rooted social, political, economic, or cultural factors).
Students will also explore consequences in a similar categorisation exercise. They will be encouraged to analyse the immediate outcomes as well as longer-term implications, both intended and unintended.
There are also some differentiated independent tasks to examine where students can make connections and judgements on both the causes and consequences of events – these are not all related to history to help consolidate learning.
The lesson will support students in evaluating the relative significance of different causes and consequences, developing their analytical thinking and argumentation skills.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
American Civil Rights
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the contribution women have played to the Civil Rights Movement.
The title of the lesson is unsung heroes, which is apt as many women have previously been invisible or deliberately placed in the background, despite being key figures in the fight for civil rights for their roles as organisers, strategists and activists.
The lesson begins by considering why this has been the case with a heads and tails activity pointing to media and gender bias, historical narratives and internal patriarchy.
The main task of the lesson is to analyse eight key women and assess their impact and contribution to civil right: from Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Jo Ann Robinson, Septima Clark, Georgia Gilmore, Angela Davis and Ruby Bridges. A further in depth analysis of Ella Baker at the Democratic National Convention of 1964 is also explored.
Students also have the opportunity for some differentiated extended writing to justify which of these hidden figures in the Civil Rights Movement in their opinion has made the most telling contribution.
The plenary is to answer a series of questions to discover a key word related to the learning from the lesson for women and civil rights.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to edit and change.
The Middle Ages
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate how new evidence can conclusively prove the remains in the Car Park in Leicester are those of King Richard III.
Students begin the lesson by decoding the task set, the excavation of Richard III – the idea is to excite them and be able to unlock the mystery surrounding the Yorkist King.
As an archaeological dig was carried out at the site, it may be worth noting which tools are required to uncover the evidence and question why they are needed in the first place.
The main task is to uncover all the evidence used in the case and decide how we can prove it is 99.99% accurate and valid. Students need fill in a grid sheet, which is differentiated and with answers given if required at the end.
Finally, students complete an extended written task to explain and justify their conclusions.
This lesson includes:
Fun, engaging and challenging tasks
Storytelling, critical thinking and source analysis
An alphabet challenge plenary
Links to video footage
Printable worksheets
Differentiated tasks
Suggested teaching strategies
PowerPoint format, which can be changed to suit
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the positive and negative impact of the media upon migration.
The lesson focuses on the role of newspapers and the tabloids, television programmes and films depicting migration since the Windrush embarkation up until the present day.
The lesson begins with the role of newspapers and their negative and sensationalist impact upon the reporting of migration; students earn how migrants are often portrayed, before completing a challenging task linking categories to newspaper headlines.
Students will then analyse the role television programmes have played with a focus on shows from the 1960s and 1970s, stereotyping migrants and how similar programees today still struggle to represent a multicultural Britain.
Finally, students focus on the role of film and the cinema and examine how they depict migration in a variety of ways.
A differentiated extended writing task will help students consolidate their learning and enable them to judge the positive and negative perspectives from the media and possible ways forward.
There are some excellent links to video footage throughout, although these need to be check beforehand and treated with care.
The plenary is guessing the headline quiz, in the style of ‘Have I got news for you?’
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the positive impact migration has had on British values and culture today.
The lesson begins with an introduction to recent migration, where students have to guess the countries migrants have come from using flags and clues.
Students watch an introductory video on migration and how it has affected Britain to the present day.
Students can then work in groups. They have to decide how migration has affected them today personally, from food, to music, language, literature and famous entrepreneurs. They can complete some extended writing on this if required.
The Octagon plenary tests their newly acquired knowledge and checks their understanding of the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
I have created these set of resources which focus on the study of Migration to Britain to consolidate and extend pupils’ chronological knowledge of migration from the Stone Age to the present day
This bundle will test student skills and historical understanding of migration. It includes significant events such as the docking of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in 1948.
It makes connections between migration to Britain through the ages such as Irish migration as a result of the potato famine and Irish migration today. Students will be introduced to key concepts of change and continuity between Jewish migration as a result of persecution, the Kindertransport as well as the causes and consequences of migration after World War II and the need for workers in Britain.
Students will analyse sources, such as for South East Asian migration to Britain and analyse different interpretations of migration through time, particulalry through the media. They will be able to use historical terms and concepts in more sophisticated ways such as assimilation, refugee, scapegoat, colour bar and boycott.
Finally they will be able to provide structured responses and substantiated arguments, giving written evidence and context to extended writing tasks throughout this Migration Unit of work.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
An introduction to migration
First Migrants to Britain
Jewish migration to Britain
Irish migration to Britain
Caribbean migration to Britain
Empire WIndrush
South Asian migration to Britain
Eastern Migration to Britain
Fighting discrimination – Bristol Bus Boycott and Stephen Lawrence
Migration today (free resource)
Migration and the Media
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies, retrieval practice and differentiated activities and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lessons come in PowerPoint format and can be edited and changed to suit. Please note that some AI has been used in researching this topic, which I have double-checked and verified to be accurate.
These lessons are ideal as a way of introducing Migration if you are teaching it at GCSE or if you wish to add an interesting unit of work to engage and challenge the students to encourage them to take History further in their studies.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact and value of Eastern European migration to Britain.
The lesson begins with an introduction to Eastern European migration to Britain from the 1600s.
Students then complete some source analysis on identity papers as part of the Kindertransport during World War II. There is a reading activity to accompany the source giving its context and a literacy check to complete.
Students learn about Eastern European contributions to the British war effort between 1939-1945, including the bravery of Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain and complete a missing word activity to gauge their impact in outcome of the war.
Finally students evaluate the significance of the Polish Resettlement Act of 1947 and resettlement camps that were established to house many Eastern Europeans after the war as well as the repercussions of Brexit on migration to Britain.
They is some extended exam style question practice to complete, which is differentiated, to focus on the value of Eastern European migration to Britain. There is sentence scaffolding to help if required.
The plenary is an unscramble of key words used in the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact of the Bristol Bus Boycott and the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the fight against discrimination and on the British justice system.
This lesson is split into two parts.
The first part of the lesson focuses on the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963. Students will discover the causes and consequences of the decision by the Bristol Omnibus company to not hire Black or Asian workers as bus drivers or conductors.
Students will complete some source scholarship on the events which followed this discrimination and assess its impact with changes in the law on civil rights using some scaffolding to complete some extended writing practice.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the death of Stephen Lawrence. Students learn what happened to him and examine the subsequent flawed police investigation. They then analyse the main details of the Macpherson Report and have to desipher some key words in a literacy focus from the report, with help given if required.
There is a quick fire quiz to finish to consolidate the learning this the lesson.
There are some excellent video links to also accompany the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the impact of South Asian migration to Britain since the 1800s.
The lesson begins with case studies on the Lascars and Anyars and an analysis of their contribution and impact to British migration from the Indian sub continent.
There are four differentiated case studies on success stories from migrants in the 1800s and students will be required to decide who was the most successful, using some key criteria to judge the part they played.
Students are also required to put the events of migration from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh after the partition of India in chronological order.
They will finally complete some source question practice to explain the challenges faced by many of the migrants in multicultural Britain.
The plenary is a mood board which will allow students to express their knowledge as well as their judgements of migration.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the upheaval of the lives of the indigenous peoples of Australia with the coming of the Europeans.
The lesson starts by looking at their customs and traditions and how these were quickly attacked through the attitudes and settlements of the colonists. A ‘Horrible Histories’ version of events is also scrutinised and questioned on its accuracy of Australian indigenous history .
I have included some comprehension questions and source scholarship using an extract from the brilliant ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera which explains the atrocities committed in Tasmania by the colonists.
Paintings from Governor Davey of Van Diemen’s Land can also analysed so the students are able to prioritise the most significant changes the colonists made to Australia and the legacy of the British Empire.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
Migration Nation
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact the Windrush Generation and Caribbean migration made upon Britain post World War II.
This lesson is the second part out of two focusing on Caribbean migration to Britain.
The lesson begins with the analysis of why people on board the Empire Windrush came to Britain. There is an accompanying passenger list excerpt, with differentiated questions for the students. Furthermore there is some source scholarship to complete on a newspaper report from the time.
As well as focusing on the positives of culture brought with this post war immigration and the current Notting Hill Carnival, there are also negatives to evaluate such as racism, prejudice and discrimination faced by many who settled in Britain.
Students are required to analyse key information before completing an extended writing exercise with key words and scaffolding to help if required. There is also a challenge to students to explain how these problems might and should have been overcome from the outset.
The plenary is in the style of a ‘Have I got news for you’ quiz.
There are video links to also accompany the lesson.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and edited to suit.
The lesson is differentiated, fully resourced and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the success of Elizabethan policies designed to help the poor.
The lesson begins with an explanation of the causes of poverty in Elizabethan England. Students also focus on attitudes towards the poor amongst Elizabethans and decide in a number of statements why poverty was feared so much in society.
Students also have to read in some extended writing an analysis of measures taken by the Government to alleviate poverty and then summarise their findings from it. There is a focus on the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law and a source scholarship task which will allow them challenge and judge its impact and significance.
There is also a case study of Lord Burghley’s Almshouses in Stamford which highlights a growing sense of duty amongst wealthier Elizabethans to help and provide for the poor.
There is a choice of two plenaries which will test student’s knowledge on the legislation, help and attitudes towards poverty under Elizabeth I.
Finally some exam practice can be completed if required, complete with prompts and a comprehensive markscheme.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The Middle Ages
The aim of this lesson is to decide what happened to the Princes in the Tower.
The lesson begins with some context of the Wars of the Roses and who was next in line to the throne after King Edward IV.
Students are required to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the two Princes (Edward & Richard) and are introduced to the main suspects in this murder-mystery investigation.
As they examine a range of sources, they will begin to piece together an idea of what happened to them. They will then be required to complete an extended writing task with key words and help if required.
This lesson is ideal for sparking curiosity about historical mysteries and encouraging independent thinking. It also includes recently discovered new evidence by Professor Tim Thornton, which sheds new light on the investigation.
This lesson includes:
Fun, engaging and challenging tasks
Storytelling, critical thinking and source analysis
A family fortunes style plenary
Links to video footage
Printable worksheets
Differentiated tasks
Suggested teaching strategies
PowerPoint format, which can be changed to suit
