Monthly Archives: August 2011

Reading pins down new online history

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Mr Kydd

It is always good when something orginal happens close to home so, it this report from the Reading Post is really exciting. As the report states  “Reading will become the first place in the world to create an online history of itself … Continue reading →

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“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” – George Orwell 1984

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Mr Kydd

You often get more informed and reflective comment in the Sunday newspapers. So it seems here in this week’s Observer. Historian and MP for Stoke Central, Tristram Hunt, writes about falling numbers of GCSE and A Level History students. For me he … Continue reading →

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History and computers?

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Mr Podesta

Eric Schmidt (Google chairman), has recently condemned the UK education system.  He claims that we tend to separate students into ‘science’ and ‘humanities’ categories too much.  According to Schmidt, instead we should be encouraging more to become ‘polymaths’ – people … Continue reading →

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History uptake continues to decline…

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Mr Kydd

At this time every year there is a conversation in the media about grade inflation and “hard” V “soft” subjects. In truth it is a more complex topic than some would have us believe. However one fact shines through – … Continue reading →

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Informed decision please Year Thirteen

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Mr Kydd

First off congratulations on a cracking set of AS results. They are a tribute to all your hard work and hours of revision. It is course the nature of examinations that some of you will want to target a re-sit in the January … Continue reading →

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Is everything I ever taught you wrong ?

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Mr Kydd

Those of you that had the misfortune to be taught by me in Year Seven will of course remember that it was the Romans who brought urban living to Britain. Well it seems, perhaps not for the first time, I … Continue reading →

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Historians and the riots.

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Mr Kydd

All of us will of course have been aware of the awful rioting in early August, and many of us will have heard (about) David Starkey’s comments on Newsnight. If not, or if you want to hear the discussion Verbatim then this BBC … Continue reading →

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Ian Kershaw on writing history about Hitler

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Mr Podesta

In this interview in in the saturday Guardian, there’s a fascinating insight into what drives historians in their choices of research, in the process of writing history books, and in the way that different schools of historians views are often … Continue reading →

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“Earliest” Map of Britain made available as an interactive website

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Mr Kydd

This is the earliest surviving map of Britain – the Gough Map. It dates from the 1370s, and was revised in the early Fourteenth Century. The BBc article linked below comments, “drawn on two pieces of sheepskin, the 115 x … Continue reading →

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