History skills resources

Develop and assess key historical skills with your secondary history students using this hand-picked selection of skills and investigation lessons, activities and baseline assessments

Tes Resources Team

History skills lessons and activities

Navigating key historical skills is often the first topic taught to new secondary history students - and arguably one of the most important. It lays the foundation for their historical learning throughout school and equips them with core skills they’ll refine and develop as they progress through secondary education.

Students begin with foundational skills such as understanding chronology, recognising bias and distinguishing fact from opinion. These gradually evolve into more complex concepts- typically explored through historical enquiry - such as change and continuity, cause and effect, interpretation and significance. There’s a lot of ground to cover but each step builds essential understanding.

To support you in assessing and developing your students’ historical skills, we’ve gathered a selection of skill-based resources perfect for budding historians. Whether you’re looking for full lessons that explore what history is and why it matters or targeted activities and assessments covering key historical skills, we’ve got you covered.

History skills in practice

History Detective - The  Mystery of  Easter Island
Ichistory

History Detective - The Mystery of Easter Island

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The History Mystery series is a very good hisroy skills builder and great for the teaching of ... - Critical thinking. - Historical inquiry. - Understand that historical understanding is always evolving. - Personal bias . are students prepared to let go of their first hypothesis ? - Corrobor...
Jack the Ripper Investigation Lesson
lgibbins

Jack the Ripper Investigation Lesson

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This lesson is based around the five canonical Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. Students will learn about the context of the East End of London in 1888 and then use evidence collected by the police at the time to analyse the suspects. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to infer who th...
Mystery of the princes in the tower
mrshopehistory

Mystery of the princes in the tower

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A well presented lesson on the Mystery of the Princes in the tower created for KS3 history students on Microsoft Powerpoint **A little about the lesson** Using primary and secondary source evidence, students work in pairs to investigate the mystery of the 2 princes in the tower using sources to d...
Ice Mummy Interpretation Skills Lesson (What is history? (KS3))
Historybuff .

Ice Mummy Interpretation Skills Lesson (What is history? (KS3))

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This lesson follows a pupil led investigation in which they discover what has happened to the ice mummies - this lesson builds upon this knowledge and develops skills of working with interpretations prior to baseline assessment - this lesson is part of a series of lessons that build upon use of sour...

History skills assessment

KS3 History skills: History Baseline Test
PilgrimHistory

KS3 History skills: History Baseline Test

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How much historical knowledge and understanding do your students have when they arrive in secondary school? This ready-to-use baseline assessment is designed to establish students' prior knowledge, historical thinking skills and understanding at the beginning of their KS3 History course. It provide...