This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct. It starts by recapping Gnaeus Genucius’ murder which gives Volero Publilius the platform he needs for his uprising and reforms - this story is then told and analysed throughout, allowing connections to be made to the broader Conflict of the Orders between Plebeians and Patricians that was going on during the early years of the Roman Republic. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - there is also a 6 mark exam question at the end so that students can apply their knowledge in one of the more low stakes questions they will get on the paper. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the Volero Publilius Uprising and his legislation that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is designed to be a succinct and clear lesson that provides enough detail for the Ancient History OCR 9-1 GCSE Foundations of Rome Unit. Including the exam question at the AfL questions - this lesson would ideally run over two hours. It goes through how Tarquinius Superbus became king and why, what Livy says about him in his History of Rome, and his various disastrous political tyranny and cronyism. There is also a clear and detailed explanation of Tarquin’s exile and his family tree - complicated issues but made as simple as possible here and easy for all students to access. The lesson is punctuated by pertinent questions which students can either verbally respond to or write out short explanations. these help to embed the knowledge and I’ve found them pretty useful for AfL. My students liked these kind of lessons because they’re completely dual coded and as a result it massively reduces cognitive load, allowing pupils to easily access what is otherwise quite complex information. The lesson contains various useful embedded video clips (hence the larger file size) - a short entertaining video clip detailing the extent to which we can trust Livy as a source and one summarising Tarquin’s reign. There is also a 10 mark OCR exam question at the end with a variety of model answers which students can analyse before attempting their own with the help of sentence starters.

Any students trying to study the origins of Rome are met with the difficulty of marrying mythology and archaeology. The mythology of Aeneas and Romulus and Remus often takes precedent, leaving students without any contextual knowledge about what Italy was actually like at the time. This lesson helped my students address this issue. By teaching this lesson in between an ‘Aeneas’ and a ‘Romulus and Remus’ lesson, they could much more easily recall the key details of both stories - thanks to the contextual knowledge of Italy that this lesson provides. Students are introduced to all the different prominent cultures and peoples of Bronze Age Italy, including many like the Sabines and the Latins who Rome will come into conflict with shortly afterwards. this lesson provides a snapshot of Italy in 1000 BCE, which provides the handle students need to hang their subsequent learning about early Rome on. The lesson is dual coded to reduce cognitive load and videos are included (hence the large file size) at appropriate points to provide extra exposition.

This assembly is simple and easy to follow. It has striking visuals which are easy for students to interpret interpret (see preview image). The Assembly starts with looking at how Tolerance works with other values to make us better people, followed by a definition of tolerance in pupil-speak. Examples of how Britain has become more tolerant over time are then introduced and then we introduce students to the idea of intolerance and what that means. I delivered this assembly during the week of January where Holocaust memorial day falls (27th January). Pupils learn about the Holocaust in History and many have a good understanding of it already - hence why the assembly is driven by the value of Tolerance, with a case study of the Holocaust then introduced. This is what can happen when intolerance is allowed to flourish I told the pupils. Despite Britain’s difficult imperial past, I outline how standing up to Nazi Germany and its intolerance is something Britain should be proud of. The assembly ends with practical suggestions that pupils can do in school and in wider life that helps them to demonstrate tolerance and build a more tolerance school and society. There is enough here for a 20-40 minute assembly - depending on how much you want to embellish the slides with your own exposition.

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the Plebeians and the Patricians argument with each other at the beginning of Rome’s new Republican era ended with the Plebs leaving the city for the second time - in addition to the role the Decemvirs played in all this. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a 15 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE - including a passage from Livy and sentence starters. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the Second Secession (Secessio Plebis) that exists at the moment - it’s why I made the lesson because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… There is also a summary video clip at the start to tell the story so far. Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the Plebeians and the Patricians came to argue with each other at the beginning of Rome’s new Republican era. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a 6 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the challenges and details of the origins of the Conflict of the Orders in Rome that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the consuls Valerius and Horatius attempted to bring an end to the bickering between the Patricians and Plebeians that had characterised the Conflict of the Orders for such a large part of Rome’s early Republican period. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a10 and 15 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE - including a passage from Livy. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the this time period in Rome’s history that exists at the moment - it’s why I made the lesson because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson was made for my GCSE History students studying the Cold War. It is made in a way that it will cover the content of the any GCSE History spec - it is a concise and clear account of the agreements at Yalta and foreshadows the disagreements that come later at Potsdam in it plenary. It is designed to last an hour - I made this because other resources on the Yalta conference out there seemed unwieldy and lacked focus. This is designed to be the opposite and will prove invaluable to students who sometimes aren’t so quick to embed learning when presented with new information. For that reason, my students like these types of lessons because they are completely dual coded and easy to follow - they reduce cognitive load meaning that students can access the learning far more easily than through other resources which are ‘all singing, all dancing’ (!) or unnecessarily complex. There is a worksheet included as a slide to be printed off A4 that students add their notes on to as the lesson progresses and there is a sound clip that students listen to as a starter and jot a few notes down, and a summary video clip is also included (hence the larger file size) which prompts a few lines of questioning that will prove useful when studying the Potsdam conference. Thanks for taking a look :-)

Contained within the .ppt file are 19 separate handouts which detail each important event in AQA’s ‘Conflict and Tension 1945-72’ History GCSE unit on the Cold War. Each handout focuses on causes of the event, the event itself, and its consequences within the context of the Cold War. These can be used as a support in lessons or as a revision aid. Each sheet also has one or two challenge/thinking questions which encourage students to engage with the information they are reading and form an opinion on the event one way or another, backed up by specific examples. Handouts are mixture of information and helpful images/sources which can also be used as a basis for discussion. These have proved particularly useful in my lessons when printed a5 size, stuck in the middle of a page in an exercise book and get highlighted and annotated by students as the lesson progresses. Being able to answer the challenge/think questions also gives students an instant sense of achievement.

These detailed course / revision notes were specially written to give OCR A Level History students a comprehensive overview of the key knowledge from the specification for Unit Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: four case studies 1) The Songhay Empire c.1450–1591 2) The Kingdom of Kongo c.1400–c.1709 3) The Kingdom of Benin c.1500–c.1750 4) The Kingdoms and Empires of Oyo and Dahomey 1608–c.1800 These extensive notes are especially useful for students whose note-taking in lesson isn’t as good as others, or whose organisational skills mean they are missing notes/handouts on certain topics / areas. These notes will certainly help reduce the time it takes them to catch up with their peers, and also students like to use these as a checklist of topics to go into in further detail. They give peace of mind that every corner of the specification/syllabus has been covered. Hopefully these notes help to save your students (and you!) some time in the hectic run up to exams. Thanks for taking a look :)

This CPD, aimed at new and existing members of SLT, goes through the rationale behind conducting subject deep dives in the style of Ofsted, and how to implement them. Included are two files: a PowerPoint file in the event you would like to deliver this CPD to staff as a presentation a PDF in case you want to disseminate this CPD via email, or follow up with the notes to the presentation above. This resource provides step-by-step insights into navigating subject deep dives, focusing on intentional strategies for refining teaching practices and achieving incremental improvements, fostering a culture of reflection and adaptability within the constraints of secondary education. Thanks for taking a look - hopefully after using this guidance you’ll be in a place as a senior leadership team, or as a highly competent middle leader, where you are able to convey the need for and benefits of subject deep dives, not just in the context of preparing for Ofsted, but also importantly in the spirit of a commitment to continuous school improvement.