European and World History

History

Secondary

Discover ancient Egypt in a Liverpool museum

In this programme Year 7 pupils are treated to a visit to the World Museum in Liverpool as an introduction to Key Stage 3 history. Teacher Gareth Rogers from Weatherhead High School on the Wirral chose a day of Egyptian-themed sessions to make best use of the collections his local museum has to offer. On the trip they find out about mummification through role-playing, handle Egyptian treasures and practice writing hieroglyphics. To make the visit memorable and get material for further study, the pupils take digital cameras to the museum and record what they see. Back in school the next day the pupils develop their ICT skills by preparing a PowerPoint presentation about the day and show it to their classmates.

Ancient Worlds

See inspiring ideas demonstrated for planning KS4 history lessons

Innovative history lesson ideas on a selection of topics covering the GCSE curriculum, including Key Stage 4 European and world history, are demonstrated by three teachers in this lesson-planning resource. Introducing a starter activity for a lesson on apartheid, and Hula Hoop History, a lesson idea aimed at providing pupils with an overview of what it was like for Jews living in Nazi Germany, is head of department Emma Parker. The secondary students place cards listing anti-Jewish laws in a large hula-hoop Venn diagram, encouraging them to evaluate how different areas of life were affected by the anti-Jewish laws. Demonstrating how he uses role play to cover the topic of international opposition to apartheid, Steve Toms stages a press conference with higher-attaining KS4 students taking the roles of delegates. Finally, Sophie Welch introduces a learning pyramid to help students learn how to identify and gather information from historical sources, which they will need to remember when they sit their GCSE history exam.

GCSE History: Apartheid and Nazi Germany

Two professors views on the understanding of different wars

History teacher Lucia Harvey updates her own learning by discovering the latest thinking on two vastly different periods of war in history, both relevant to our modern world with hotly debated interpretations. Harvey talks to Cambridge professor Jonathan Riley-Smith about The Crusades, who believes there is a dangerously inaccurate public understanding of them. Riley-Smith goes on to state that this perception has been used to explain or even justify some of today's holy wars, and believes it is time for a re-think. Harvey also talks to King's College professor Andrew Lambert at the RAF Museum in London, about the recent debate on the Battle of Britain and the under-represented role of the Royal Navy.

Discover why GCSE history results at Orleans Park are so good

Discover the strategies that head of history Fiona Osborn and her team are following to help their students achieve their excellent GCSE results. Eighty per cent of pupils taking GCSE History at Orleans Park School in Twickenham, where Fiona teaches, obtained A* - C results, with half achieving an A or A* in 2007. Follow the history department as they aim to keep up their success story, as they plan and design the lesson resources required for a new GCSE lesson on German resistance to the Nazis. The programme also shows how they deliver the lesson and suitably adapt it for different ability levels. Fiona believes much of the department's success is down to a strong, stable team of specialist teachers who share their resources and ensure that pupils enjoy the subject.

History - Planning and Implementing Effective Lesson Resources

KS3 history: a German Jewish family's home movies from 1937-9

Show a Key Stage 3 history class rare footage of the life of a Jewish family in Germany between 1937 and 1939. This lesson-starting resource can be used to stimulate classroom discussion. These home movies were shot by Siegfried Gumprich, a grain merchant and first world war veteran living in Munster, and they feature his wife Louise and children Brigitte and Walter. Secondary pupils can see an apparently contented family going about their everyday business. But appearances are deceptive - the Gumprichs were trying to preserve a sense of normality under increasingly restrictive conditions. By 1939, when the films were being shot, the family were trying to emigrate, applying to the relevant authorities, who didn't grant them permission. On 28 August 1939 the family was taken to the Dutch border by a Catholic priest and they were able to escape to England.

Holocaust - A Pre-war German Jewish Family

The personal story of a young Jew in Nazi Berlin, for KS3 history

Watch a personal account of being a young Jew growing up in Nazi Germany, in this classroom resource for Key Stage 3 history. Filmed against the background of modern-day Berlin, Gad Beck who grew up in Berlin describes how he abandoned his identity papers and lived as a non-person to evade the Gestapo. Secondary pupils can learn how Gad personally experienced the anti-Jewish regulations in his home city, as he recounts the events of the time.

Holocaust - In Hiding, A Journey through Berlin

The life of a British Auschwitz survivor, for KS3/KS4 history

Help Key Stage 3/4 history students discover the life of one of the few British Jews who were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. Leon Greenman, who died aged 97 in 2008, was a survivor from Auschwitz in 1945. His wife and child tragically died at the hands of the Nazis, and for the rest of Leon's life he was determined to warn and educate people about racism. Ruth-Anne Lenga from the Jewish Museum examines the artefacts found in Leon's house, including books, documents and notes from different stages in his long life.

Holocaust - In the House of a Survivor

A German lady remembers her brother, a WWII resistance member

See a German lady read a letter written by her brother, a member of the German resistance, just before his execution at the hands of the Gestapo, in this classroom resource for use in Key Stage 3 history. Willi Graf was a member of the White Rose resistance group, yet kept it a secret from his sister. His silence probably saved her life because when she was arrested the Nazis believed her testimony that she had no knowledge of her brother's activities. Anneliese Knoop Graf explains that, unlike her brother, she made compromises and was a passive bystander during the Nazi period. Born in Germany in 1921, she joined the Bund Deutsche Madel, the Nazi-run youth organisation for girls, along with most of her friends. Anneliese admits she doesn't like talking about this period in her life, preferring to talk about her brother, to whose memory she has dedicated much of her life.

Holocaust - My Brother, In the Resistance

A survivor's story of Auschwitz, for use in KS3 history classes

In this Key Stage 3 history classroom resource, Esther Bejarano, a survivor of the Holocaust, tells how she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau and survived by joining the camp's orchestra. Secondary pupils can learn how Esther was born in 1924 to a German Jewish family. Aged 15 she tried to emigrate to Palestine, but instead was sent to the Fuerstenwald Labour Camp for two years' hard labour. On 20 April 1943, all inmates of this camp were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. There, Esther was again forced to do hard labour until someone asked if she could play the accordion. Despite never having picked up the instrument, Esther said 'yes' and she joined the camp orchestra. The musicians had to play to new arrivals, knowing that many of them would be killed in the camp's gas chambers.

Holocaust - The Auschwitz Orchestra

Explore the 1942 Wannsee conference with a KS3 history class

The Wannsee conference, which debated the Nazi's 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question', is the focus of this Key Stage 3 history classroom resource. At the conference, held in Berlin on 20 January 1942, senior Nazi officials were presented with a detailed list showing the number of Jews in different parts of the world. They discussed the methods of extermination already used and made various proposals in the interest of their own departments. None of the participants expressed any scruples. Secondary pupils can hear how Wannsee was part of a cumulative process of decisions which first discriminated against Jews and then condoned their abuse, before finally turning deportation and haphazard murder into systematically organised genocide sanctioned by the Nazi government.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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