Helen
@helenpins.bsky.social
History teacher, cat facilitator, feminist.
History without women is like a body without a nervous system. #ALevel #ForeignPolicy (Today was Margaret - the most successful Tudor, dynastically?) #historyteacher
November 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
History without women is like a body without a nervous system. #ALevel #ForeignPolicy (Today was Margaret - the most successful Tudor, dynastically?) #historyteacher
Started reading this one - it’s an interesting combination: part history, part biography, part travelogue. It’s also got some fictionalised parts (in that way it reminds me of the start of each chapter in Black Tudors)
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Started reading this one - it’s an interesting combination: part history, part biography, part travelogue. It’s also got some fictionalised parts (in that way it reminds me of the start of each chapter in Black Tudors)
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
#historyteacher #currentlyreading
Continuing the ‘women leading Tudor foreign policy’ policy #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
November 7, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Continuing the ‘women leading Tudor foreign policy’ policy #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
And they say media is London-centric. Come on, BBC. You can do better than this. ‘Where is Cambridgeshire?’ FFS.
November 1, 2025 at 10:13 PM
And they say media is London-centric. Come on, BBC. You can do better than this. ‘Where is Cambridgeshire?’ FFS.
This book is great for setting the scenes for each section of Viking Expansion. It can be quite tricky for students to get into the Vikings, as it’s so different from everything else they’ve studied; I think this will help. #historyteacher #GCSE I haven’t got to kings yet, which is where we struggle
October 29, 2025 at 10:34 AM
This book is great for setting the scenes for each section of Viking Expansion. It can be quite tricky for students to get into the Vikings, as it’s so different from everything else they’ve studied; I think this will help. #historyteacher #GCSE I haven’t got to kings yet, which is where we struggle
New book ✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
October 24, 2025 at 4:05 PM
New book ✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
Cake ✅
Half term ✅✅✅
The best email ever 🥹 #historyteacher @histassoc.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The best email ever 🥹 #historyteacher @histassoc.bsky.social
Elizabethan history appeals to Zoya’s dark side #historyteacher
October 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Elizabethan history appeals to Zoya’s dark side #historyteacher
Here are some board designs that students made #historyteacher
We had chocolate coins because it’s not really medieval finance if you’re not counting coins like Scrooge McDuck, right?
We had chocolate coins because it’s not really medieval finance if you’re not counting coins like Scrooge McDuck, right?
October 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Here are some board designs that students made #historyteacher
We had chocolate coins because it’s not really medieval finance if you’re not counting coins like Scrooge McDuck, right?
We had chocolate coins because it’s not really medieval finance if you’re not counting coins like Scrooge McDuck, right?
Henry VII monopoly by Y12 #historyteacher
October 9, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Henry VII monopoly by Y12 #historyteacher
I really should be marking Y10 exam answers but I appear to have left them at school, so I suppose I will just have to read my new book instead. Oh dear. #historyteacher I’ll pretend it’s research for Y13 and Y11.
October 2, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I really should be marking Y10 exam answers but I appear to have left them at school, so I suppose I will just have to read my new book instead. Oh dear. #historyteacher I’ll pretend it’s research for Y13 and Y11.
A revamped and more detailed display for my new classroom. Ask and you shall receive, Y11 (they will regret it when I keep going on about it) #historyteacher #historyaroundus
September 23, 2025 at 4:32 PM
A revamped and more detailed display for my new classroom. Ask and you shall receive, Y11 (they will regret it when I keep going on about it) #historyteacher #historyaroundus
I love a forgotten preorder (I ordered this last year when I was teaching Y9 geography and had no idea what I was doing!) #historyteacher who sometimes is a #geographyteacher
September 22, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I love a forgotten preorder (I ordered this last year when I was teaching Y9 geography and had no idea what I was doing!) #historyteacher who sometimes is a #geographyteacher
The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark is only £3 on Amazon at the moment, which is a total bargain because it’s amazing. Buy it and get women onto the A Level spec! #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #OCR And we can all talk about how awesome it is and that it’s Zoya-approved.
September 22, 2025 at 4:03 PM
The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark is only £3 on Amazon at the moment, which is a total bargain because it’s amazing. Buy it and get women onto the A Level spec! #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #OCR And we can all talk about how awesome it is and that it’s Zoya-approved.
I’ve been teaching the Tudors at A Level for 15 years. This book means I understand two fifteenths and tenths for the first time. Everyone just assumes you know what this tax is, and no one knows who to ask! Also, there’s a good contextual overview of England v France since 1066 #historyteacher
September 21, 2025 at 9:59 AM
I’ve been teaching the Tudors at A Level for 15 years. This book means I understand two fifteenths and tenths for the first time. Everyone just assumes you know what this tax is, and no one knows who to ask! Also, there’s a good contextual overview of England v France since 1066 #historyteacher
Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke tomorrow (for my second Y12 group). My first group didn’t get the best lesson because I can’t read and type fast enough.
Petition to rename it to the Earl of Lincoln’s rebellion, btw. Stop blaming the kid. #Historyteacher #ALevel #CurrentlyReading
Petition to rename it to the Earl of Lincoln’s rebellion, btw. Stop blaming the kid. #Historyteacher #ALevel #CurrentlyReading
September 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke tomorrow (for my second Y12 group). My first group didn’t get the best lesson because I can’t read and type fast enough.
Petition to rename it to the Earl of Lincoln’s rebellion, btw. Stop blaming the kid. #Historyteacher #ALevel #CurrentlyReading
Petition to rename it to the Earl of Lincoln’s rebellion, btw. Stop blaming the kid. #Historyteacher #ALevel #CurrentlyReading
We ❤️ this book, it has Zoya’s ringing endorsement, and mine too #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
September 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
We ❤️ this book, it has Zoya’s ringing endorsement, and mine too #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
Oooh, look who’s snuck away from Bosworth! Currently being all stealthy in Colchester, AKA the cupboard in my classroom #historyteacher
September 12, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Oooh, look who’s snuck away from Bosworth! Currently being all stealthy in Colchester, AKA the cupboard in my classroom #historyteacher
Battle commences. I was the most dramatic, every time a Jelly Baby was cut down I screamed, which just made the kids giggle even more. They prepped it really well and now know who the surviving nobles/Jelly Babies were, and who they originally supported. #historyteacher
September 11, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Battle commences. I was the most dramatic, every time a Jelly Baby was cut down I screamed, which just made the kids giggle even more. They prepped it really well and now know who the surviving nobles/Jelly Babies were, and who they originally supported. #historyteacher
This is totally normal…I maintain this is how Polydore Vergil wanted his work to be interpreted. Some Jelly Babies, cocktail sticks, sticky notes, and a battlefield plan.
He didn’t say he *didn’t* want it done this way, so… #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #Bosworth
He didn’t say he *didn’t* want it done this way, so… #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #Bosworth
September 10, 2025 at 9:06 PM
This is totally normal…I maintain this is how Polydore Vergil wanted his work to be interpreted. Some Jelly Babies, cocktail sticks, sticky notes, and a battlefield plan.
He didn’t say he *didn’t* want it done this way, so… #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #Bosworth
He didn’t say he *didn’t* want it done this way, so… #historyteacher #EarlyTudors #Bosworth
I am listening to Tracy Borman’s new book, The Stolen Crown, and it starts with Camden rewriting history to be more favourable to James I. I love it already (and then Chapter 1 starts with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, we all know and love it) #historyteacher
September 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
I am listening to Tracy Borman’s new book, The Stolen Crown, and it starts with Camden rewriting history to be more favourable to James I. I love it already (and then Chapter 1 starts with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, we all know and love it) #historyteacher
There’s a section comparing Empress Wu and Elizabeth I, which means I can do a metaphorical cage match between Year 7 (Wu) and Year 10 (Elizabeth) #historyteacher @enortonhistory.bsky.social I am so looking forward to reading this!
September 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
There’s a section comparing Empress Wu and Elizabeth I, which means I can do a metaphorical cage match between Year 7 (Wu) and Year 10 (Elizabeth) #historyteacher @enortonhistory.bsky.social I am so looking forward to reading this!
I think for half term one we will focus on Super Sentences (we so often ask students to ‘write in full sentences’ but do they know what that means in a disciplinary context?) Is this patronising or just back to basics? #historyteacher
August 29, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I think for half term one we will focus on Super Sentences (we so often ask students to ‘write in full sentences’ but do they know what that means in a disciplinary context?) Is this patronising or just back to basics? #historyteacher
Weird fact I read about: cramp-rings on Good Friday! Rings made of gold donated by the monarch and sprinkled in holy water were believed to cure the ‘falling sickness’ (epilepsy). It started with Edward III and ended with Mary I. Henry VII handed them out at Lincoln 1486 #historyteacher
August 19, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Weird fact I read about: cramp-rings on Good Friday! Rings made of gold donated by the monarch and sprinkled in holy water were believed to cure the ‘falling sickness’ (epilepsy). It started with Edward III and ended with Mary I. Henry VII handed them out at Lincoln 1486 #historyteacher