HWS History
@hwshistory.bsky.social
Chris Holmes. Head of History & Politics at Highgate Wood School, North London. History is for life not just exams! For students, staff, alumni & parents. All views expressed here are strictly my own.
Formerly https://twitter.com/HWS_History
Formerly https://twitter.com/HWS_History
Whatever we might think about the curriculum I am sick of the dumbing down narrative. I’m old enough to have done O levels. My school had only recently become a comprehensive and retained a grammar school ethos. My students today work far harder than I did. And their mental wellbeing is much worse.
November 5, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Whatever we might think about the curriculum I am sick of the dumbing down narrative. I’m old enough to have done O levels. My school had only recently become a comprehensive and retained a grammar school ethos. My students today work far harder than I did. And their mental wellbeing is much worse.
At the end of an inset day in school the History dept went to the Barbican for Olusoga’s ‘Gun through a time’. Genuine CPD - his argument that three technologies built Britain’s empire in Africa:
Quinine / Gunboats / Maxim Guns. I might just steal that.
Quinine / Gunboats / Maxim Guns. I might just steal that.
November 4, 2025 at 6:18 AM
At the end of an inset day in school the History dept went to the Barbican for Olusoga’s ‘Gun through a time’. Genuine CPD - his argument that three technologies built Britain’s empire in Africa:
Quinine / Gunboats / Maxim Guns. I might just steal that.
Quinine / Gunboats / Maxim Guns. I might just steal that.
History teachers use ads as primary sources in lessons. Often disturbing; for better or worse, they provide insight into the prevailing values of a period. So when a modern politician complains that ads today are now actually too multicultural, it's pretty safe to infer where they are coming from...
October 27, 2025 at 8:46 AM
History teachers use ads as primary sources in lessons. Often disturbing; for better or worse, they provide insight into the prevailing values of a period. So when a modern politician complains that ads today are now actually too multicultural, it's pretty safe to infer where they are coming from...
Anniversary today of Edgehill in 1642 - first major battle of the British civil wars. Interesting to think that those there can have had absolutely no conception of what they were about to be a part of: Three civil wars, regicide and the birth of several new ideologies.
October 23, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Anniversary today of Edgehill in 1642 - first major battle of the British civil wars. Interesting to think that those there can have had absolutely no conception of what they were about to be a part of: Three civil wars, regicide and the birth of several new ideologies.
Back from visiting Auschwitz/ Birkenau. Exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. A privilege to share this experience with our students.
October 16, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Back from visiting Auschwitz/ Birkenau. Exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. A privilege to share this experience with our students.
Y13 Auschwitz trip:
At the Waval castle overlooking the old city. An explanation of why the area was ironically a safe haven for Eastern European Jews for centuries.
At the Waval castle overlooking the old city. An explanation of why the area was ironically a safe haven for Eastern European Jews for centuries.
October 15, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Y13 Auschwitz trip:
At the Waval castle overlooking the old city. An explanation of why the area was ironically a safe haven for Eastern European Jews for centuries.
At the Waval castle overlooking the old city. An explanation of why the area was ironically a safe haven for Eastern European Jews for centuries.
Sadly I couldn’t join them, today but I’m so happy that I work in a department where my colleagues choose to spend their weekends enjoying History. A trip to the battlefield for a reenactment to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
October 11, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Sadly I couldn’t join them, today but I’m so happy that I work in a department where my colleagues choose to spend their weekends enjoying History. A trip to the battlefield for a reenactment to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
Like many teachers I use this London Transport recruitment poster in my migration lessons. To my shame I’ve not thought about the actual woman in the picture.Thanks to Michael Rosen I now know this is Claudette Hart. a salutary reminder to respect that History is the experience of ordinary people.
August 19, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Like many teachers I use this London Transport recruitment poster in my migration lessons. To my shame I’ve not thought about the actual woman in the picture.Thanks to Michael Rosen I now know this is Claudette Hart. a salutary reminder to respect that History is the experience of ordinary people.
Visited a large museum of the Resistance & Liberation in a small town in an out of the way part of France. Insightful & sensitive handling not just of the heroic aspects but also the issues of Petainist collaboration & Vichy’s role in the Holocaust. Such nuance & honesty too rare in public History.
August 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Visited a large museum of the Resistance & Liberation in a small town in an out of the way part of France. Insightful & sensitive handling not just of the heroic aspects but also the issues of Petainist collaboration & Vichy’s role in the Holocaust. Such nuance & honesty too rare in public History.
One of the joys of being a History teacher on holiday is getting to read some History. One of the disadvantages is when something like this genuinely challenges your thinking about a topic you have taught for a while. And then you realise you’re going to have to re-plan a whole series lessons 🤦🏻😂
July 27, 2025 at 6:35 AM
One of the joys of being a History teacher on holiday is getting to read some History. One of the disadvantages is when something like this genuinely challenges your thinking about a topic you have taught for a while. And then you realise you’re going to have to re-plan a whole series lessons 🤦🏻😂
The last week of term. I'm having a lot of conversations about careers with leavers ( Y11 & Y13) and former students now graduating. I'm tempted to recommend David Gerber's book. To encourage them to do work with meaning both for them & society. So proud my own daughters work in the public sector
July 14, 2025 at 5:29 AM
The last week of term. I'm having a lot of conversations about careers with leavers ( Y11 & Y13) and former students now graduating. I'm tempted to recommend David Gerber's book. To encourage them to do work with meaning both for them & society. So proud my own daughters work in the public sector
Serves me right: After bemoaning absence of women from the A Level English Revolution spec - the exam yesterday had a Leveller women source. Don’t know whether to be happy or annoyed at the exam board for featuring topics not in the spec or their approved textbook. Good job I teach beyond the spec.
June 7, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Serves me right: After bemoaning absence of women from the A Level English Revolution spec - the exam yesterday had a Leveller women source. Don’t know whether to be happy or annoyed at the exam board for featuring topics not in the spec or their approved textbook. Good job I teach beyond the spec.
Feeling privileged to have Leila Hassan-Howe
speak to my Year 9s about Black British Civil Rights campaigns in the 70s with her late partner Darcus Howe. Also feeling proud to be part of a school where we can build this into our History curriculum. @hdesilva.bsky.social @calmleadership.bsky.social
speak to my Year 9s about Black British Civil Rights campaigns in the 70s with her late partner Darcus Howe. Also feeling proud to be part of a school where we can build this into our History curriculum. @hdesilva.bsky.social @calmleadership.bsky.social
May 16, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Feeling privileged to have Leila Hassan-Howe
speak to my Year 9s about Black British Civil Rights campaigns in the 70s with her late partner Darcus Howe. Also feeling proud to be part of a school where we can build this into our History curriculum. @hdesilva.bsky.social @calmleadership.bsky.social
speak to my Year 9s about Black British Civil Rights campaigns in the 70s with her late partner Darcus Howe. Also feeling proud to be part of a school where we can build this into our History curriculum. @hdesilva.bsky.social @calmleadership.bsky.social
I love teaching the migration unit for GCSE. I particularly enjoy the story of the Huguenots - the first refugee community to settle in the East End. And it was especially good to explain to Year 10 that one in six of us in London have Huguenot ancestry - including Nigel Farag
May 12, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I love teaching the migration unit for GCSE. I particularly enjoy the story of the Huguenots - the first refugee community to settle in the East End. And it was especially good to explain to Year 10 that one in six of us in London have Huguenot ancestry - including Nigel Farag
I came to teaching late in life - but still have a sense that over the years I must have matured in my practice: When I started students called me Jack Sparrow. Now they call me Gandalf. 🤣
April 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM
I came to teaching late in life - but still have a sense that over the years I must have matured in my practice: When I started students called me Jack Sparrow. Now they call me Gandalf. 🤣
Easter holiday reading. Some 18th Century history. Shipwreck & mutiny in the Wager. Frances Barber born into slavery, Samuel Johnson’s friend & heir. A surprising link; the relatively meritocratic & racially diverse nature of the Royal Navy at that time.
April 26, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Easter holiday reading. Some 18th Century history. Shipwreck & mutiny in the Wager. Frances Barber born into slavery, Samuel Johnson’s friend & heir. A surprising link; the relatively meritocratic & racially diverse nature of the Royal Navy at that time.
There are few lessons where I find that I teach with unashamed emotion, but this is one of them; Today it’s the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. If you don’t include it in your curriculum I’d have to say you’re not doing justice teaching the Holocaust.
April 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM
There are few lessons where I find that I teach with unashamed emotion, but this is one of them; Today it’s the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. If you don’t include it in your curriculum I’d have to say you’re not doing justice teaching the Holocaust.
In 1649, following the trail & execution of the king, parliament abolished the House of Lords declaring it to be "useless and dangerous to the people of England", Today in 2025, Michael Gove was given a peerage. Just saying ...
April 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
In 1649, following the trail & execution of the king, parliament abolished the House of Lords declaring it to be "useless and dangerous to the people of England", Today in 2025, Michael Gove was given a peerage. Just saying ...
It's not a period that I've studied (inadequately) since O Level.
But I've just watched Farage calling for nationalisation of the steel industry and I think it's time to have a look at Chamberlain's Tariff Reform League of the early 1900s and the strange phenomenon of working class conservativism.
But I've just watched Farage calling for nationalisation of the steel industry and I think it's time to have a look at Chamberlain's Tariff Reform League of the early 1900s and the strange phenomenon of working class conservativism.
April 9, 2025 at 7:41 AM
It's not a period that I've studied (inadequately) since O Level.
But I've just watched Farage calling for nationalisation of the steel industry and I think it's time to have a look at Chamberlain's Tariff Reform League of the early 1900s and the strange phenomenon of working class conservativism.
But I've just watched Farage calling for nationalisation of the steel industry and I think it's time to have a look at Chamberlain's Tariff Reform League of the early 1900s and the strange phenomenon of working class conservativism.
Ironic: This weekend I'm marking essays on the arrest, torture and imprisonment of the Quaker James Nayler in 1656 under the Protectorate Parliament's Blasphemy Act. The same weekend I'm reading about the police raid last week on the Quaker meeting house in Euston Road. Plus ca change and all that.
March 30, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Ironic: This weekend I'm marking essays on the arrest, torture and imprisonment of the Quaker James Nayler in 1656 under the Protectorate Parliament's Blasphemy Act. The same weekend I'm reading about the police raid last week on the Quaker meeting house in Euston Road. Plus ca change and all that.
Not History Education, but if you work in any way with young people you need to watch Steven Graham & Jack Thorne’s Adolescence n Netflix. It’s not easy watching - but wow.
March 18, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Not History Education, but if you work in any way with young people you need to watch Steven Graham & Jack Thorne’s Adolescence n Netflix. It’s not easy watching - but wow.
Talking to students about the idea of a golden age. In 17th Century England it was Elizabeth’s reign. A nostalgic view that is rarely accurate. It gives more insight about the people who believe it than it does about the past itself. For me it’s the 70s: pre-Thatcher, proper bikes & rock n roll🤣
March 8, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Talking to students about the idea of a golden age. In 17th Century England it was Elizabeth’s reign. A nostalgic view that is rarely accurate. It gives more insight about the people who believe it than it does about the past itself. For me it’s the 70s: pre-Thatcher, proper bikes & rock n roll🤣
The occasion when Churchill wasn’t attacked for visiting the White House wearing his ‘siren suit’. Of course it was a publicity stunt. In 1941 London was being bombed nightly, Washington wasn’t. And Roosevelt respected that.
March 2, 2025 at 8:01 AM
The occasion when Churchill wasn’t attacked for visiting the White House wearing his ‘siren suit’. Of course it was a publicity stunt. In 1941 London was being bombed nightly, Washington wasn’t. And Roosevelt respected that.
I read Bloodlands soon after it came out back in 2010. At the time I approached Timothy Snyder's book on Ukraine & Poland mainly from the point of view of the Holocaust. I never imagined that a few years later it would have such an urgent topicality. I wonder if the White House library has a copy.
February 20, 2025 at 8:00 AM
I read Bloodlands soon after it came out back in 2010. At the time I approached Timothy Snyder's book on Ukraine & Poland mainly from the point of view of the Holocaust. I never imagined that a few years later it would have such an urgent topicality. I wonder if the White House library has a copy.
I'm teaching two Y9 classes the rise of the Nazis: Today we did the period 1928-32 when they went from a fringe party to having the largest % of the vote. Students made so many connections to the present; I didn't know to be proud of their perception or depressed at the current state of the world.
February 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I'm teaching two Y9 classes the rise of the Nazis: Today we did the period 1928-32 when they went from a fringe party to having the largest % of the vote. Students made so many connections to the present; I didn't know to be proud of their perception or depressed at the current state of the world.