Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme

Where a session has been identified by the presenter(s) as suitable for multiple key stages, particular areas of focus are indicated in bold.

Using original documents to teach about the Holocaust and to develop independent thinking skills

Peter Morgan
The Wiener Holocaust Library, London

This session will aim to increase awareness within the teaching community of the potential for learning about the Holocaust and the Nazi era, using the collections and educational materials at and made available by the Wiener Holocaust Library.

Learning outcomes:

  • to seek to add to the existing body of literature and practice regarding problem-solving approaches and cognitive learning, and how original documents can be used to engage and enthuse young people further in history
  • to demonstrate how this can be done by taking an approach whereby students are encouraged to look, notice, question, hypothesise, use existing knowledge, test and develop bigger pictures
  • to examine how this approach can be used to humanise victims, perpetrators and bystanders, and explore the potential of and issues around using this history to reflect on modern concerns

Friday: 11:30–12:30

Suitable for: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, teacher educators, mentors

Local history: teaching and learning through place-based pedagogies

Jen Huntsley, Stephanie Jach
York St John University

A sense of history is inextricably entwined with a sense of place. How might we best support primary teachers in using their immediate location to teach history? We share case studies of our work in initial teacher education to model and exemplify how key concepts in a history curriculum (e.g. chronology, change, cause and consequence) can be 'made real' through interactive place-based pedagogies. This workshop will be suitable for primary teachers, student teachers and teacher educators.

Learning outcomes:

  • to reflect on how best to support student teachers and early career teachers in primary history
  • to know how key concepts in primary history may be taught through place-based pedagogies
  • to take part in place-based learning activities suitable for primary history lessons

Friday: 13:30–14:30

Suitable for: Early Years, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, teacher educators

Demystifying subject leadership: a panel

Gareth Owen (chair)
Witchford Village College, Ely

This panel session will offer an insight into the subject-specific challenges (and joys!) of being a head of history. Comprising experienced and new heads of history, we'll aim to address topics such as:

  • communicating curricular choices to SLT and school inspectors
  • promoting history in schools
  • working with specialist and non-specialist colleagues to improve teaching

This is open to everyone, whether you're thinking about subject leadership, have just started as a head of department or are experienced in the role.

Learning outcomes:

  • to demystify subject leadership
  • to inspire classroom teachers to step up to subject leadership by sharing the hard-earned wisdom of our community of leaders
  • to reassure new heads of history that there is a network of peers standing by

Friday: 14:45–15:45

Suitable for: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, teacher educators

Exploring coherent curriculum design: from legislation to classroom practice

Yvonne Roberts-Ablett, Lloyd Hopkin
Welsh Government, Cardiff

This session will illustrate the role of co-construction in developing the National Curriculum for Wales Framework – a curriculum for teachers, by teachers. The development of a purpose-led curriculum is at the heart of work across Wales, one that is closer to the classroom than ever before, including mandatory inclusion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic histories.

Learning outcomes:

  • to understand what Curriculum for Wales is and isn't
  • to understand co-construction – the process of the teaching profession in Wales designing the national Framework
  • to understand the purpose of history as a vehicle to realising the four purposes of Curriculum for Wales

Friday: 16:15–17:15

Suitable for: Early Years, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, teacher educators, mentors

Conceptual confusion: why planning for conceptual understanding is so difficult

Victoria Crooks
University of Nottingham; History Teacher Educators' Network
Laura London
University of East Anglia, Norwich; 2History Teacher Educators' Network

Beginning history teachers find it hard to identify disciplinary concepts and even harder to understand how pupils make progress in their disciplinary understanding. However, they are frequently told to ensure that their planning prioritises the disciplinary over the substantive. This can lead to conceptual confusion. This session will explore beginning teachers’ assumptions, preconceptions and misconceptions and make practical suggestions for how to support them to overcome their conceptual confusion.

Learning outcomes:

  • to understand why beginning teachers find articulating the purposes and development of conceptual knowledge so challenging
  • to consider how the assumptions made about beginning and early career teachers' understanding of the role of conceptual knowledge can create misconceptions
  • to know how beginning teachers can be supported to plan for the development of conceptual knowledge and therefore improve pupils’ understanding of history as a discipline

Saturday: 11:15–12:15

Suitable for: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, teacher educators, mentors

Getting (really) specific about learning objectives for history lessons

Morgan Robinson
The University of Sheffield

Learning objectives are vital to planning purposeful lessons that contribute to wider curricular goals, but they are often so hard for novice and experienced teachers alike to identify, refine and evaluate. Nowhere is this true more than history, where the complex nature of what it means to progress in historical knowledge makes it all the more difficult to get specific about what we want pupils to learn and what that even looks like. Drawing from experience and much frustration in training student history teachers to design effective learning objectives, this session will demonstrate why this is so important and provide some strategies to overcome the barriers to effective design of learning objectives for history lessons.

Learning outcomes:

  • to leave with a clear set of criteria for designing effective learning objectives in history
  • to improve skill in reviewing your own objectives, as well as those designed by student history teachers

Saturday: 12:30–13:30

Suitable for: teacher educators, mentors

How to enhance your curriculum without breaking the bank or drowning in paperwork

Deborah Hayden
Trinity Catholic School, Leamington Spa

This session will focus on how to meet teacher standard 8, contributing to the wider life and ethos of the school via extra-curricular activities. A variety of extra-curricular activities will be covered to enhance both your curriculum and your students’ experience. Examples will include national and local projects, outside speakers, online workshops, competitions, clubs and trips. Practical tips on how to implement these strategies will also be covered.

Learning outcomes:

  • • to take away details of a range of potential extra-curricular activities that could be implemented within the curriculum
    • to gain tips on how to implement the activities
    • to learn details of the impact of these activities for students

Saturday: 14:30–15:30

Suitable for: Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, teacher educators, mentors

Dawson Lecture

Michael Riley
UCL Institute of Education, London

History around us: why teaching about the historic environment matters more than ever
Engaging children and young people with the history around them is one of the great joys of history teaching. Studying the buildings and landscapes of the past can deepen our understanding of the lived experience and mental world of people in past societies. More profoundly, it can help us to understand ourselves in time. In an age of environmental crisis, engaging pupils with the history around them matters more than ever. Michael’s lecture will reflect on the power and potential of learning about the historic environment.

Saturday: 15:50–16:50

Suitable for: All key stages