This KS3 lesson should take one hour to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities and all accompanying resources are included. This is my first Year 7 lesson at the start of our first unit on Medieval Realms. Aims and Objectives: To know some facts about life in the Middle Ages. To select evidence from sources to answer a question. To apply this evidence to reached a balanced judgement about life in the Middle Ages (good and bad things). Activities include a true/false introductory medieval quiz, a source analysis exercise that encourages students to use source material effectively to support their points (this starts with a collection of negative sources before balancing these with positive sources), a vocabulary homework with test sheet on the next unit- The Battle of Hastings.

This KS3 lesson provides an overview of events and then analyses the reasons for the Allied victory in WW1. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities. After a brief introductory video, the students rate the level of the Allies’ success through seven closing stages. Having gained an overview of events, students then carry out a range of analytical activities using the cause cards provided. They are asked to group the cards into Allies’ strengths vs. German’ weaknesses, long vs. short term and then group them into social, military and economic. After reading a worked example of an explanation of military reasons, students select either social or economic reasons and produce an explanatory paragraph to demonstrate their understanding.

IMPORTANT: Some of the activities refer to the textbook "Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-1939 (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127347 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 1-2 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand Hitler’s early career: joining the German Workers’ Party and setting up the Nazi Party, 1919-20. The Power Point leads students through all activities with an accompanying task booklet. Following a starter which answers 5W questions about the origins of the party using a short passage, students work in pairs to discuss the steps that would need to be taken to set up a new party. The booklet tasks then work through each stage, charting the early development of the party. Activities include colour-coding of a selection of the 25 Points into nationalist and socialist, making inferences from sources to understand why membership grew, note-taking/table on the impact of the changes Hitler made, an analysis of what key members bought to the party and a series of comprehension questions on the early SA.

This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the work of Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda: censorship, Nazi use of media, rallies and sport, including the Berlin Olympics of 1936. To understand Nazi control of culture and the arts, including art, architecture, literature and film. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. Activities include a short Derren Brown video to introduce the idea of mind control, last man standing on forms of propaganda, source comparison of Hitler and Goebbel’s methods, a Goebbels CV (possible homeowork), analysis of short extract from Triumph of the Will looking for examples of propaganda at the Nuremberg Rally, rearching examples of both propaganda and censorship and a Chamber of Culture simulation exercise sorting art work into keep and dismiss with discussion.

This KS3 unit should take 2-3 hours to complete. The Power Point leads the students through all of the activities with accompanying resources included. Advice on writing technique is also included. Aims and Objectives: To know the main events of the Battle of Hastings. To understand the main reasons why William won. To reach a verdict on which reasons were more or less important. To be able to write up your ideas as an essay. Activities include a starter which asks students to draw inferences from the Bayeux Tapestry, followed by a short video which recaps prior events and then shows the key events of the battle. Students use this knowledge to cut out the jumbled events and match/stick them onto the storyboard. There is an extension on source bias using William of Poitier’s account. Initial on why William won are recorded in a thought-shower. Students then complete a card sort activity, categorising the reasons why William won into William’s strengths, Harold’s weaknesses and luck. There is an SEN version of simpler cards with a sorting grid included. Essay writing and PEEL paragraphing is then introduced with a worked example of poor-good paragraphing using PEEL. Students write their answers in essay style using the writing frame provided. A mark scheme is included.

This KS3 unit of work should take at least two hours to complete (depending upon how long you allow your class to spend on the board game activity). The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To know how medieval people practised their faith and the key words that are linked to this. To understand why religion was so important to them. To understand medieval views on Heaven and Hell and apply this by creating a board game. Activities include key words/definitions matching, independent reading and summary note-taking, analysing a medieval wall painting, sorting actions into good deeds/sins and ranking these and creating a medieval religion snakes and ladders board game.

This KS3 topic covers a single lesson and introduces the course on The Tudors by providing students with a complete overview of the monarchs. It’s simple but effective and I’ve had fantastic justified reasons from students when I’ve used it. Aims and Objectives: To know the Tudor family tree and the order in which they reigned. To know a few basic facts about each of the Tudor monarchs. To compare their reigns and make a judgement on who was the greatest Tudor monarch. The starter focuses on the family tree and establishes the order and reasons for reigns. We then work through each of the monarchs, whilst students rank them on a continuum from worst to best. I’ve always made them note down two reasons for each but the information sheet could equally be adapted into cards for them to order. Students are then asked to make an independent judgement on which monarch was the greatest and we discuss the choices at the end.

This KS3 lesson should take around one hour to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included. Feedback/answers are also provided when required. I use this lesson at the start of our scheme of learning on WW2 as it clarifies the political landscape in the 1930s and provides students with the necessary vocabulary and political understanding. Aims and Objectives: To know the different types of political systems and link them to 1930s pre-war politics. To understand how they are similar and different. To consider their strengths, weaknesses and impact on people’s lives. Activities include a video starter which uses a short cartoon to introduce key political concepts. Students use this to match definitions to concepts and then consider what type of political system we live under. They then categorise a series of facts according to the belief system which they describe. As an extension, students list all the differences between democracy and dictatorship and then compare the similarities and differences between communism and dictatorship. Finally, students write a paragraph explaining which system they would most like to live under and why.

This unit will take approximately two hours including assessment writing time. The starter activities ask students to pool their prior knowledge about Robin Hood using video clips as prompts. This then leads into a discussion about fact, fiction and legend and how the modern tale came into existence. Students then use a collection of sources to complete a research table considering whether or not Robin Hood was a real historical figure or a fictional character. A simplified SEN collection of sources is also included. The final assessment is a discursive essay which asks student to consider both arguments before reaching an overall verdict. A mark scheme is included.

This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the reasons for, events and consequences of the Munich Putsch. To understand the reasons for limited support for the Nazi Party, 1924-28. Party reorganisation and Mein Kampf. The Bamberg Conference of 1926. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets and resources. Activities include a video starter giving an overview of the causes, events and consequences of the Munich Putsch, a card sort/analysis activity on the causes of the putsch, a storyboard task on the events whereby students have to retell the story without reference to their notes, a colour-coding activity on the successes/failures of the putsch, a 12 mark explanation question with advice, worked example and writing frame, a ranking of Hitler’s views from Mein Kampf from moderate to extreme, analysis of written passage to understand how Hitler utilised the lean years to strengthen the party internally and a summary exercise on the reasons for their electoral disappointment at this time.

This Key Stage 3 unit explores the causes of WW1 and then goes on to analyse the reasons why the German Schlieffen Plan failed, leading to trench warfare. It will take around two lessons to complete. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities. There are a number of very nice short video clips on the causes of WW1, including a great Horrible Histories clip (when available) but I particularly like the Blackadder clip attached. Be warned- the final punchline is “bollo**s” and I often censored this with a timely cough much to the annoyance of the class. The lessons start by contextualising Europe in 1914 with some map work and identification of alliance systems. We then identify and analyse the causes of WW1 using the passage provided. The following lesson, the students start by problem-solving Germany’s dilemma and proposing their own war plans- I’ve had some very interesting and intelligent responses to this, along with some quite frankly bizzare/amusing. After studying the Schlieffen Plan, students translate the actual events into a series of annotated maps before analysing the reasons for the plan’s failure and writing this up in an extended paragraph.

This KS3 lesson should take around two hours to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities and accompanying resources are included. Aims and Objectives: To think about and discuss the main reasons both for and against banning slavery (from our own opinions and ideas held at the actual time). To put these arguments into categories and rank their importance. To know the key events which led to the banning of slavery and sort this information into key factors. To write up our findings in an essay style. Students evaluate to arguments for and against abolishing slavery across the British Empire. They categorise and rank the various reasons historically given. They then categorise the key reasons into those relating to the economy, the slaves themselves and the Abolitionists. This leads into an essay-style written assessment. A writing frame and mark scheme is also provided. To assist with the review of this assessment, there are explained samples paragraphs and a conclusion.

This KS3 unit should take around two hours + one homework to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with all accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To know and understand the main causes of the British Industrial Revolution. To consider which factors are more/less important and how they worked together. To consider the importance of individuals and reach a judgement on how achieved the most. Activities include an odd one out starter, research and mind map activity on the causes with a linking exercise as an extension, group research and information poster on one individual who contributed towards the Industrial Revolution, followed by a carousel/information sharing activity. Finally, there is a class vote on who contributed the most, followed by a homework/paragraph answer explaning who the student thinks contributed ther most.

This KS3 unit of work aims to contextualise the unit of study on WW2 by providing an overview of the key events. It should take between 1-2 hours to complete. I use it near the start of the course before focusing on certain events as depth studies. The Power Point leads students through all activities with all accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To know the main events of WW2. To understand why certain events are of particular significance as turning points. To make a judgement on which events were the most important turning points. Activities include a fun competition starter which recaps on the causes of WW2. Students try to guess the words using a series of images (non historical- just sound right). Having defined a turning-point, students then use the detailed information booklet to make brief notes on the significance of each key event. Finally, they produce a paragraph answer explaining which event was the most significant and why.

Before looking at the reigns of each Tudor monarch in KS3, I start with this lesson underlining the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. It really helps with the understanding of each ruler’s actions later in the Tudor course. Aims and Objectives: To know how a Catholic and Protestant church look different. To know the main differences in beliefs between the two types of Christianity. To understand why Catholics and Protestants practised their faith differently and why they both felt so strongly about this. After a short parody video on the Reformation, we start by comparing and analysing the diagrams of a Catholic and Protestant church. Students then complete the colour-code activity setting out the different beliefs. There’s an SEN version of the colour-coding which I replace the longer version with when teaching nurture groups. Students then demonstrate their understanding by creating a poster supporting one of the denominations. This is generally set as homework and as a competition. The plenary asks students to identify whether a range of beliefs are Catholic or Protestant using the “C/P” cards to ensure they all have to get involved.

IMPORTANT: Some of these activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1 History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work-rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the fight against Cholera in London, 1854; attempts to prevent its spread; the significance of John Snow and the Broad Street Pump. The Power Point leads students through all activities with regular feedback and accompanying worksheets. These include a starter fact-file, information sorting and categorisation, problem solving using card sort. The lessons end with an assessed exam question; “Louis Pasteur’s publication of the Germ Theory was the biggest turning point in medicine in the period c1700-c1900”. How far do you agree with this statement? (which students should be able to answer by this stage of the specification). Exam tips and the opportunity for peer assessment are included.

IMPORTANT: Some of these worksheets refer to the textbook "Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, Medicine through time, c1250-present (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 2-3 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand continuity and change in explanations of the cause of disease and illness. The influence in Britain of Pasteur’s Germ Theory and Koch’s work on microbes. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets. These include a true and false quiz, table comparison of old and new ideas, information categorisation and ordering and a 16 mark exam question with guidance. The experiment could be left out but my classes loved it and it really works if done correctly. You will need to keep the one bread sample totally sterile, so handle minimally with sanitised hands and bag straight up. The contamination of the other piece of bread is great fun- we rubbed it on door handles, the floor and one student had it under his armpits! Don’t pierce the sandwich bags but pin them in a light/warm place like your department staff room. Everybody will love to watch the mould develop whilst eating their lunch. It also provides a valuable lesson on why hands should be washed before eating.