Jacob Olivey

What’s the wisdom on… Evidence and sources

There’s a reason why this was dropped in the early 1990s! It just doesn’t work, and it led to all kinds of distortions (summarised here).

www.history.org.uk/publications/resource/9667/whats-the-wisdom-on-evidence-and-sources?srsltid=AfmBOoqod19WnNU2D-c2QxmZrRQB2eaMs0bDZgzsu1Agh1_mnPnpPVIh

🚨 History teachers, we’re back! 🚨

Join us on 7 Feb 2026 for a day of workshops and a nice curry – all for £25.

Ten years after the ‘knowledge turn’, we’re exploring what knowledge-rich history teaching looks like today.

Presenters & link below 👇

We’re back!

Can’t wait for #Soane26 - a whole day of great workshops about knowledge in history teaching.

Tickets now on sale. Only £25?!

www.eventbrite.com/e/ark-soane-history-conference-2026-tickets-1747091470619?aff=oddtdtcreator

Really interesting blog. On the point about what we want pupils to remember, I think this is where the tasks that accompany stories come in. What questions do we ask? What details do we drill (and which do we leave in the background)? Which words do we drill to ‘stamp’ the core knowledge?

Just managed to catch up with @michaeldoron.bsky.social and @jacobolivey.bsky.social excellent webinar on Teaching Language Directly with @histassoc.bsky.social

Thanks both for a fascinating session! Really interesting approaches and stimulating ideas. Well worth a watch if you can catch it 👍

Thanks Alistair! Really glad you enjoyed it.

How does an enquiry question sustain interest, build momentum and give all pupils access to disciplinary thinking across a lesson sequence? How does the EQ help you to integrate compelling stories and rich, extended text?
Register bit.ly/4nrA8Mv for Cat and Elizabeth's webinar on Tues 8 July 3.30pm

Really excited to deliver this FREE session with @egcarr.bsky.social
We’ll discuss the power of enquiry questions, including how they shape the analytic direction and purpose of a sequence of lessons, create a sense of intrigue & infuse lessons with energy! @counsellc.bsky.social

King's birthday honours: Top gongs for northern trust CEOs 70 people with links to England's school system recognised

Congratulations @counsellc.bsky.social! Delighted to see your name here!
schoolsweek.co.uk/kings-birthd...

The absolute last thing schools need right now - while dealing with an extremely tight funding settlement and rising poverty - is a radical overhaul of the exam system.

Really excited about presenting this series for @histassoc.bsky.social – starting this Wednesday, 4 June, 4pm.

In the first webinar, @jacobolivey.bsky.social and I will explain why we think children don't need to 'do history' to learn history.

Recordings will be available. Link below! 🔗👇

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

What a wonderful couple of days at HA 2025.

Fantastic sessions from @edurbin.bsky.social @davidjhibbert.bsky.social @e-nicholson.bsky.social & @jacobolivey.bsky.social

A joy to present alongside the wonderful @egcarr.bsky.social

Superb keynotes.

Stunning location.

Another great chapter from @dankeates.bsky.social, Stanford & Goullee’s “Practical Guide to History Teaching”. So useful to have a comprehensive look at similarity and difference and historical perspective in one chapter @jacobolivey.bsky.social. The Seixas & Morton stuff is v helpful too.

Interested in a direct approach to history teaching? 'Lean lessons' with booklets, whole-class reading, explanation, and lots of questions?

@jacobolivey.bsky.social and I are leading a webinar series for @histassoc.bsky.social in June – and it's cheap! Just £50 for all six webinars.

Link below! 👇

As does the experience of being at a pretty standard secondary school in the late noughties! Autoethnography?

I love Teaching History to bits, but you can’t use it as a record of what most history teachers thought / think.

I think the approach Daisy Christodoulou takes in 7 Myths is more useful here. The many Ofsted reports she cites, and the 2007 National Curriculum, tell a different story to TH.

Hmmm. I wouldn’t say progressive history teaching is a rejection of knowledge altogether? Like you say, no one (?) ever said ‘we shouldn’t also teach any knowledge’. But it’s also fair to say that there was a much greater emphasis on discovery, group work, source skills c. 2005.

Especially since the post-2013 reforms were framed in opposition to earlier approaches.

I think if someone wrote the case for ‘progressive history teaching’, and they set out clearly which aspects of ‘traditional history teaching’ they’ve got an issue with, they might get more traction.

Obviously the world is more complicated than any model, but I do think it’s a shame that we seem to have abandoned those labels.

In my experience as a mentor, lots of new teachers find it really difficult to make sense of the education landscape in 2024 without labels

Out of interest, do you think progressive / traditional is a useful way of describing different educational approaches? I feel like people discussed this on Twitter ages ago, but can’t remember what / if there was a consensus within UK history teachers.

I just don’t agree. Thinking about education/knowledge ‘as a thought exercise’ leads to abstractions. Needs to start from experience: what specific things do my pupils find difficult about history, what do / will they find interesting, what stuff do I think is important from the to know…

None of this is possible if they can’t say the word ‘relic’, or can’t remember what a relic is in a week’s time.

If you asked history teacher in China whether kids there should learn about the Song Dynasty, they’d be really confused.

Because they’re at school in the UK? Obviously they should leave about European history in the last 1,000 years?

For me, it’s about being thorough. Does *everyone* in the class know what a relic is? Does the word ‘relic’ conjure up vivid pictures in their minds (weary pilgrims, bejewelled boxes, a saint’s fingernails)? Can they all say the word ‘relic’?

Obviously, I think substantive *and* disciplinary/second-order knowledge are both important and worthwhile.

I see ‘knowledge-rich history’ of the last decade as a useful corrective (albeit one that has led to some unintended consequences).

Advocates of knowledge-rich history would say that teaching (substantive) knowledge is ‘the main thing’ that should happen in a school history classroom.

Kids learning more *about* the past is a good thing - and is just as worthwhile as kids learning ‘how we know’ about the past.

Perhaps not, but I think it’s fair to say that teaching (substantive) knowledge was rarely seen ‘the main thing’ in the early 2000s. As in, teaching some knowledge was necessary - but only to teach historical skills / thinking.

@jacobolivey.bsky.social lays out how similarity and difference can be understood and used in conjunction with historical perspective. Understanding how, what has been called cultural history, can be used as part of history teacher planning. A fantastic chapter.