🚨 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

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 👍

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

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! 👇

@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.

Today is publication day for a Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School. 19 years after the first edition, this is a complete re-write by so many wonderful experts in the history teaching community. Thanks to @terryhaydn.bsky.social for offering the opportunity 5 years ago!

Thrilled to be receivin first copies a real team effort by so many great history teachers and educators @victoriacrooks.bsky.social @lauralondo1017.bsky.social @paulalobo.bsky.social @danlyndon.bsky.social @mrmayhew.bsky.social @michaelfordham.bsky.social Dedicated to the great Helen Snelson

#ChangingHistoriesKS3 - Changing the world of history textbooks for 11-14 year olds. With Book 1 Connected Worlds, we set a high bar for immersive story telling accompanied by beautiful looking pages. With Book 2 Expanding Worlds we're taking it to the next level. Samples coming soon!

What keeps going wrong with assessment in history? What can we learn from 35 yrs of the same mistakes? Looking forward to presenting, Tues 3.30pm, for Leicester Education Improvement Partnership @histassoc.bsky.social @beckyfrancis.bsky.social @jonhutchinson.bsky.social @salwilson11.bsky.social

6. I've really seen how brilliantly @jacobolivey.bsky.social and @michaeldoron.bsky.social use images to support world-building. Jacob's presentation on Stalin's Russia showed this off superbly. This is an element I've added to support storytelling in the classroom. Works superbly well.

We're gonna need a Bigger Listen.

Want to lead History across five schools? What to improve life chances for young people? Want to work in beautiful Cornwall? There is only a week left to apply for this amazing opportunity working with the @celtacademies.bsky.social education team as Director of History. Repost and get in touch!

Our subject teams are deep curricular thinkers. Every day, I get the chance to work with people who LOVE their subjects. Big shout out to @michaeldoron.bsky.social's fabulous history dept for hosting a fantastic conference last weekend. bsky.app/profile/edur...

Thank you to everyone who came to our second Ark Soane History conference yesterday. It was such a joy to see so many history teacher colleagues together. As always, I’m proudest of our pupils who were so keen to help and talk about history. What a lovely day. #Soane25

Thanks so much to @michaeldoron.bsky.social and his team for organising a superb day at #soane25 yesterday! The buzz of ideas at events like this shows teaching at its finest and does wonders for both the self-perception and the image of the profession as a whole

A brilliant thought provoking day at #Soane25. Thank you to @michaeldoron.bsky.social & the team for putting together a jam packed day of #History CPD 👏 Thoroughly enjoyed all my workshops and the chance to catch up with so many wonderful #historyteachers

Back in Bristol after a brilliant day at #Soane25. Chapeau to @michaeldoron.bsky.social for organising another cracking conference. Delivering that speech at the end with Eamonn Duffy sitting in front row was one of the more marginally terrifying things I've ever done.

It's quite something when Eamon Duffy is only one highlight of a conference! Terrific day at #Soane25. Brilliant work from the history team there once again.

Really interesting session from @jacobolivey.bsky.social on Stalin and the Soviet Union. Love the use of powerful images and posters within the enquiry! #Soane25

We go again! #Soane25

These are the examples that Ofsted need to be bombarded with over the consultation. Anyone with half an ounce of sense will see that it is a nonsense that one of these is better than the other.

Give RE the status, coherence and rigour it needs, by ensuring all teachers of RE, primary & secondary, know what pupils have learned in earlier years and so can use and build on it. Our current system is inequitable. Countless children miss out. @culhamstgabriel.bsky.social @retoday.bsky.social

We've had over 200 sign ups on this already. The question is will @hughrichards.bsky.social surpass @paulalobo.bsky.social 's 288? Over the moon with all the interest in this #ChangingHistoriesKS3 webinar series. Plenty more to come in 2025 inc @catherinepriggs.bsky.social and @egcarr.bsky.social

I've written a post for @histassoc.bsky.social's One Big History Department on curricular coherence 🔗 onebighistorydepartment.com/2025/01/23/b...

Really excited to be doing this FREE webinar about stories in History with @counsellc.bsky.social - sign up if you’re interested in learning more about stories in the classroom. Some good stuff in there for teachers and HoDs alike Please RT/spread the word! Register here 👉 ow.ly/PmAv50UJsER

HISTORY TEACHER ROLE! Our pupils love History at Ark Soane – from Year 7 all the way up to our first Year 10 cohort, 80% of whom do History GCSE. We’re expanding and looking for another History teacher to join us next September. Could this be you? Details below! 🙂

We now have only ten tickets remaining. See you all soon! 🙂

If you have a ticket for our #Soane25 History teacher conference, then you'll very soon get the full programme and workshop options – exciting!! Meanwhile, here is a sneak peak (with more to be revealed). 👇👁️ There are just a handful of tickets left. Link below!

Great to see HA conference programme now available for May 9/10 in Liverpool. I'm delighted to see that Michael Riley is delivering the keynote education lecture on 'Why teaching about the historic environment matters more than ever' www.haconference.com

Too many people can't walk to the pub, shops, school, doctors or to see friends of family because there is no safe way to go. 7 in 10 agree we should be able to use field margins if there's no safe alternative www.theguardian.com/environment/... buildstories.slowways.org/life-or-deat...

Changing Histories really is a game changer in history textbook design. Proper prose, narrative-driven, with tasks that then unpack the narrative. Far more intellectually rigorous than most textbooks which are (not always) nicely illustrated information sheets.

Mike's done it again👏👏 Rich Kennett 🔥

🚨 SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨 I'm very excited to announce the keynote speakers for our #Soane25 history teacher conference on Saturday, 8 February 2025. 👇 Read more below 👇 🎟️ Get tickets here: www.eventbrite.com/e/ark-soane-... (1/3)

In an attempt to Keep Hope Alive during the last week, I'm going to post some highlights from this term. HIGHLIGHT #2 We taught a depth study on Chinese history for the first time to Year 7 - and it was a lot of fun...

In an attempt to Keep Hope Alive during the last week, I'm going to post some highlights from this term. HIGHLIGHT #1 Teaching @paulalobo.bsky.social's incredible Nur Jahan enquiry to our Year 8s for the first time...

Hoorah! Can't wait for #Soane25! 'Building worlds' is a terrific theme for the second year of this beautiful conference and the history geeks of Ark Soane are perfect hosts. History teachers everywhere, come for a day of total sanity and joy. Not one spot of dodgy 'sourcework' in sight.

Here in our Year 8 book, Expanding Worlds, @jacobolivey.bsky.social combines some of the above approaches. Our opening painting yields so many stories, so many worlds, and now we move into our first author, getting to know him before we plunge into the enquiry proper:

History teachers and SLT, don’t forget to register for Monday’s FREE webinar, 4pm, Mon 9 December ow.ly/A01g50U5cVb @paulalobo.bsky.social will use #ChangingHistoriesKS3 to "make sources sing". But what lies behind our approach to sources in these new secondary textbooks? Here’s a 🧵 ...

So excited to return to Soane. And I'm really chuffed to see two of my Ashton Park colleagues on the list of presenters.

Ticket booked! This was my favourite conference of last year and I am really excited to be going again.

Cannot wait for #Soane25 Saturday 8th February!

#Soane25 is live! Come and join us on Saturday 8th February for a day with a *phenomenal* line up of speakers. Tickets are ONLY £25 (including lunch!) Don’t miss it! www.eventbrite.com/e/ark-soane-...