Sam Day

We have curated a record-breaking NINE workshops for secondary teachers, covering a huge range of topics. You won't be surprised that we have an awesome roster of presenters including @fredoxby.bsky.social @petejackson.bsky.social @missrcarter89.bsky.social @oblaize.bsky.social

I am absolutely delighted to be able to share the news about our next @1972shp.bsky.social Yorkshire History Forum which will be taking place in York on November 24th. We have a superb line up of workshops for #primary and #secondary #historyteachers and all for a bargain basement price ...

Should the curriculum be a mirror or a window? Why representation might be an admirable ambition but a poor principle for curriculum design

Should students really “see themselves” in the curriculum?Does this risk turning subjects into mirrors instead of windows?

Is representation is a poor principle of selection? Does knowledge matter more than census-taking?
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

Calling all Cambridge OCR GCSE History Spec B Teachers - you know who you are! Please can you spare 5 minutes to complete this survey and tell us what you think of the current spec. having you say now will only make what we do in the future better.
forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Or if you have some suggestions of what we should be offering in our Developing Teachers Conference #DTC26 (use this form forms.office.com/e/u1B14iYYhJ )

Yup.
The rate limiting step in almost every context I've seen is attention. And you need a teacher to direct this. Almost every tech model starts from the wrong point because it assumes children will want to study the material and won't need their attention managed.

Presentation front slide - title ‘ks4 knowledge building and revision’

Last minute speaking slot at #TTRHums today, made me think about the KS4 strategies that have worked for me over the past few years. Absolutely none of this is original. But it’s nice to put things together in one place and share!

Building a culture of 100% participation Every student working - every minute counting

New Blog…

open.substack.com/pub/petejack...

What happens when “nothing happens”? Rethinking continuity as a dynamic process Claire Holliss was kind enough to offer her thoughts and critique on an earlier draft of this and the subsequent post, which were signific...

Does continuity in #history really mean "nothing happens"?

Exploratory blog post makes case for a dynamic understanding of continuity as a disciplinary concept

Thanks @citoyenneclaire.bsky.social for thoughts on earlier draft!

istorikteach.blogspot.com/2025/08/what...

#historyteacher #EduSky

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You Don’t Have to Be a Natural: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in Teaching Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com “Great teachers are born, not made” is one of the great myths of teacher training. Unfortunately, it is also a myth which makes its way into the subconscious of…

Know someone about to start Teacher Training #ITT #ITE #PGCE #preservice #teaching? It's likely they are starting to feel the nerves.

Nudge them to give this a read.

uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/08/13/y...

Scary conversation with Scottish parents at the camp site about the state of Scottish schools.
"They can't expel dangerous kids. They can't even really send them home. Our daughter is quiet and not tough and we're frightened of the secondary school for her."

Absolutely fascinating piece about the cluster of underlying beliefs that make people hold onto education myths.

We "replace one meaningless version of history with another that is equally meaningless – even if it is better grounded in the academic discipline” p. 266.

Barton, K. (2009). The Denial of Desire: how to make history education meaningless. In L. & W. Wilschut (Eds.), National History Standards...

Interesting and rather prescient point made by Barton in this 2009 chapter: A curriculum focused primarily on disciplinary history “carries with it the danger of discounting students’ perspectives on history, and as a result, the subject may become increasingly meaningless to them” p265.

Thanks so much to @arthurjchapman.bsky.social for a brilliant @1972shp.bsky.social Conference workshop on stories!

I've tried to gather my thoughts on one issue raised - of stories as interpretations. Here they are in draft (and very much imperfect) form: istorikteach.blogspot.com/2025/07/resp...

Had such a great time teaching Year 7 today! We explored England from 1087 to 1154 - a whirlwind of power struggles, a fractured empire, and civil war - using @counsellc.bsky.social’s chapter ‘Meanwhile, back in Norman England: Struggling for control after 1087’ from #ChangingHistoriesKS3

I wonder if the more socially enlightened approaches to our emotional states more generally, has underpinned the growth that I'm beginning to see in looking at the past through an emotional lens. It always saddened me that 'empathy' had such a poor status when I started teaching ...

Outsourcing to AI is a disaster for education of humans, with a study today showing people can't quote what they've just written if with help from an LLM.

Education is more important than ever.

Could this lead to fewer or no computers or devices of any kind in schools in future, rather than more?

Have seen the Policy Exchange "Lessons from the Past" report pop up a bit recently (in rel to Curric review & depts looking at their curriculua). Thought it was time I had a look..

Quick ver: some useful but not novel findings in a problematic package full of contradictions. #historyteacher

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I don't read many edu-books these days but this one was worth making an exception for. An excellent primer condensing lots of writing and discourse in the subject community. Strongly recommended, especially to History ITTs, teachers who didn't get much quality subject input in training and new HoDs.

Merseyside HA The Voice for History

Exciting news for people in #Liverpool and #Merseyside! We now have a local branch of the @histassoc.bsky.social! If you are a #historian, #history #teacher, or just generally interested in history, feel free to join us! We're here on Bluesky: @merseysideha.bsky.social and online: merseysideha.co.uk

Continually depressing to me how there is no policy area where you don't have to keep litigating the same shit. Essentially every old wealthy country has tried both approaches and we KNOW that having a curriculum that focuses on knowledge, not 'the skills of the future' works better.

Love the clarity of these models for explanation.

This week’s surprising news: some readers aren’t concentrating as hard as we’d like. My Trust has an online reading programme which sets quizzes based on short texts. The pupils have a choice of text at the right level for them. The quiz pass rate is 8/10. We’ve analysed quiz…

Who knew - sometimes when pupils are reading in class, they aren't paying full attention! Evidence here: readingforlearning.org/2025/05/24/t...

1. I am absolutely thrilled to be able to announce the launch of the @1972shp.bsky.social South-West History Forum! The inaugural event will be taking place on June 18 in Bristol, with a stellar lineup: Michael Riley, @paulalobo.bsky.social and @tomallenhistory.bsky.social

I've been saying for a while now the problem is planning is really badly understood. It isn't the resource you make. It's the thinking behind anything you make. If you're just making resources - including a Lesson Plan - then you aren't really planning.

Arguing AI will save teachers time is ludicrous. No new tech has. Instead of thinking "ooohh planning now takes less time" think about what you'll be doing instead.

We're doing fountains abbey - really enjoying it but definitely think the kids would have benefitted from thinking more about physical evidence earlier in their time at school

Hi Pete, really like the look of these. Interested in the site evidence bit as someone getting to grips with HAU at GCSE. Are these sorts of skills woven throughout your KS3 curriculum or do you do distinct units on sites? Would love for our kids to get used to using site evidence before Y10

If you've been following @apf102.bsky.social's insightful reviews of A Practical Guide to Teaching History, then you'll know what a fantastic book it is. So win yourself a copy by getting your ticket for the @1972shp.bsky.social's summer conference from store.leedstrinity.ac.uk/product-cata...