Please find attached an A3 marking template that I used with a Year 9 class in order to speed up marking and facilitate DIRT (Directed Improvement and Reflection Time) work. I have deleted the students’ names but have left my comments, question title, mark scheme, spellings etc. as an example. These can of course be deleted and replaced with your own. I printed out this sheet for each student, and they simply highlighted the comments that I had written their names on, before making the improvements I had set for them. This is a useful resource for if you find yourself writing the same comments in numerous students’ books.

AQA GCSE History 9-1 Conflict and Tension 1918-1949 The following resource is designed to use alongside the AQA approved Oxford Textbook. It is designed for the lesson entitled ‘Why were the Big Three Willing to Compromise when they disagreed on so much?’ Students read through the information on pages 10-11 of the textbook and complete the questions in the clock. They fill in definitions and Wilson’s 14 points on the sheet also.

Please find attached the resources that I have created for a lesson on the Norman Conquest and the rivals to the throne. I have attached: The PowerPoint presentation that I used, with background information to the Norman Conquest and information about the rivals. A card sorting activity whereby students read information on the cards about each rival, before categorising the cards into reasons why the rival should be king and reasons why they should not. The cards are attached as a PowerPoint presentation as I simply printed off the presentation as a ‘6 slides per page handout’. Attaching it as a presentation will allow you to decide how large or small you wish the cards to be. A fact file creator for each rival where students are encouraged to note key facts that they have learnt during the aforementioned card sorting activity (I have left the key facts that I included myself on the template as an example but these can be removed if you would prefer students to fill this out themselves). There are also spaces for students to fill in key facts such as ‘Nationality’, ‘Claim to the Throne’, ‘Military Strength’, etc. in a Top Trumps style.

This resource is one that I use at the end of a topic that my Year Eight students study on Henry VIII. It includes key questions which cover the knowledge that students need for their assessment the following lesson. I use the resource in the following way: I print off enough of this resource so that students have one sheet between two. I laminate the sheet. Students work in pairs and mark five random boxes with crosses using whiteboard pen. They compete with the other pair on their table. Group One select a box aloud (e.g. G3). Group Two read out the question in that box – “Whose power in the Church did Henry remove?” Group One attempt to answer this question. Group Two tell them if they were right or wrong. If Group One answer correctly and this was a square that was crossed off by Group Two, then Group One has ‘sunk’ the ship and wins the point. Teacher can play the game in varying ways-- to make it easier your ‘ships’ can consist of multiple boxes crossed in a row, etc.

Please find attached a ‘Find Someone Who Knows’ grid. I used this as a summary following a lesson on the causes, consequences, symptoms etc. of the Black Death for my Year 9 pre-GCSE Medicine Through Time students. This would also work well as a starter the following lesson for recap purposes. It is in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and I simply printed this off as an A4 handout for students. Students walk around the classroom asking their peers for the answers. They write the answer given in the box along with the student who provided the answer. They are only allowed to get one answer per peer.