Crikey - the end of a half term is nigh.  Where has it gone?  It's now that the jitters are setting in about whether I'll cover the AS course in time, and whether my GCSE students are actually ready for a January exam (our first trial of a Jan entry by the way).  No doubt the same comments are appearing on teaching blogs across the land!  Mind you, we had a pretty successful Open Evening - in true department style we dressed up as historical characters (or should I say we dressed as historical anachronisms - how many can you spot in the picture?!) and we rehearsed our historical fashion show at least 4 times, ready to wow the parents and visiting children. The best bits by far were (a) being accused by other departments of "empire building" (who can deny a bit of competition isn't fun!), and (b) seeing the children's imaginations run riot when they handled real artifacts from a mudlarking session on the Thames foreshore. I think my most favourite question is: "Are they really real Miss?" When I reply "Yes", I can almost hear the cogs in their minds whirring and wheeling as they try to get to grips with something that's 500 years old and what it challenges in their existing ideas.  It was also brilliant to hear how some junior schools are really committed to history.  A lot of visiting Year 6s told me how their school has had an entire history term, where they've come to school as a different period of history for a whole week (Victorians week 1, Tudors week 2 etc), and have visited all manner of sites, such as Windsor, Hampton Court and the castle on the Isle of Wight whose name I can't remember.  It gave me a kick in the backside to do my best to make links with primary/junior colleagues as they're so far ahead in terms of where I'd love our department to be - namely, hands on history, bringing the past to life, and making learning fun. 

It's also been a good end to a half term as last week was the Historical Association strategy planning meeting: a day spent considering where we should be in the years coming, and how we can get there.  If you haven't heard much about the HA, I can heartily recommend getting involved.  As a relative junior in this history teaching thing, it's fascinating to hear the ins and outs of how the government, national organisations and schools are dealing with history.  On my PGCE I remember being really awakened when I learnt how seriously governments take the teaching of history, and it's excellent to sit on a committee where you hear what's going on first hand, but also get a chance to contribute to what should be done in the future, whilst providing as much support as you can to history teachers in terms of resources, development and advice.  A shameless plug of course, but if you're interested in being involved, elections are running (both primary and secondary) and it is well worth it, especially at this time when history is - once again - a hot, hot topic and needs voices to positively shape it.