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Helen

@helenpins.bsky.social
667 followers 225 following 1.6K posts

History teacher, cat facilitator, feminist.

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Reposted by Helen
Alex Quigley @alexjquigley.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
💡 NEW 💡 ‘Cognitive misers in the classroom’ “Students can be poor judges of whether an hour of work will pay off. If you cannot predict the return, the rational move is to keep your mental money in the vault.” alexquigley.co.uk/cognitive-mi...
alexquigley.co.uk
Cognitive misers in the classroom
Every teacher has taught a version of Craig. Craig was unfailingly polite, cheerful and never any trouble. He'd say good morning, rummage in his chaotic bag, settle into his chair, and waits for you ...
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I wish I lived in Scotland, I would be all over this #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Teaching Y12 how to write essay intros today, and two of my students wrote conclusions instead. I just had an instinctive ‘this is a conclusion’ reaction, which I’ve never done before. Am I becoming a better teacher, or am I so exhausted I’m operating at a new level? #insomnia #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you’re teaching Crime and Punishment for GCSE I can highly recommend using Norwich as an early modern case study - the city had everything and the museum is in the old Bridewell *and* they’ve done a virtual tour ✅✅✅ #historyteacher #GCSE
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
God bless World of Books, with their 4 for 3 second-hand books making NEA easier for me (and by extension, my students) #historyteacher
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Reposted by Helen
the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
best food writing 2026. a triumph
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Reposted by Helen
Dave Voisey @davev-vickersmg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
History teachers, and @histassoc.bsky.social folks, the Vickers Assoc have a night (4th Oct) with @davidolusoga.bsky.social. This is off the back of his excellent gun through time tour which we supported. Limitted tickets available so grap whilst you can. vickersmg.blog/product/the-...
vickersmg.blog
The Vickers MG Exhibition Presents: An Evening with David Olusoga
We are really pleased to announce that David Olusoga has confirmed he will be speaking for us at our exhibition on SUNDAY EVENING, 4 October 2026. This is a special event just for us as a thank you…
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Reposted by Helen
AgonyFlips @agonyflips.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
When you're ticked off and a friend sends you something to make you feel better. 🐑🔊
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
She’s very naughty but she’s also stoned on catnip Dreamies so she dgaf #tortietude #ZoyatheDestroya
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Can highly recommend @stpaulscathedral.bsky.social Tyndale 500 exhibition - we took Y13 today and we saw the New Testament, the first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Matthew Bible, Cranmer Bible and a first edition KJV. It was so good. #historyteacher #EarlyTudors
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
16 years ago today I started my PGCE at @soebristol.bsky.social. We did a scavenger hunt of historical sites around Bristol then I got into a row with a male colleague about why women’s history is so important in the classroom. We never really clicked. I wonder why? 🤔
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Today’s weird Google search: ‘best biscuits for kids to decorate like Bayeux tapestry.’ Yes, it’s Open Evening on Thursday, why do you ask? #historyteacher
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Reposted by Helen
Victoria Crooks @victoriacrooks.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🚨NEW BLOG🚨 During #ITT beginning #historyteacher tutorials yesterday, the biggest concern was about developing subject knowledge for #teaching. A very practical blog with tips for how to develop subject knowledge when it feels impossible. uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2026/09/19/d...
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
Developing your subject knowledge as a beginning teacher: a marathon, not a sprint
Photo by Manuel Camacho-Navarro on Pexels.com At the start of the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) year most beginning history teachers have two major anxieties: Will I be able to manage the behaviou…
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I have been rewriting Crime and Punishment lessons using case studies of medieval Oxford to help hook students into the time period. I think it has worked (it has definitely made it more interesting to teach now it’s less abstract) It’s hard work but I am enjoying it. #historyteacher #GCSE #OCR
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Episode 7 finally feels like a proper Ted Lasso episode - Ted being silly but heartfelt, characters making positive changes, Rebecca not obsessing over the nothing Dutch bloke. (Rebecca’s storyline this series has really disappointed me) #TedLasso and Beard and his freaky eyes - less said the better
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
*Looks around for surprise time machine* www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/... #historyteacher
bbc.co.uk
Watch: Warning of space arms race as US confirms weapons in Earth's orbit
The US has confirmed it deployed a space weapon in Earth's orbit, the first time it has acknowledged such offensive capabilities.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I went to see Pressure. Even though I know what happened on D-Day and the importance of the weather, I was still the nerd in the cinema who gasped at every twist. Shocking lack of Maureen Sweeney, but she was mentioned by name, so…that’s something. #historyteacher #geographyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
@yougov.co.uk sending out the #HistoryTeacher bat signal
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I don’t know why this is annoying to me - I know about reading ages and the BBC and NHS, but this just seems patronising (and the phrase ‘food pipe’ is used repeatedly in the article rather than the correct anatomical word) www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Very hot drinks may damage the food pipe and increase cancer risk
Steaming hot liquid can damage the cell lining on the way down to the stomach, experts say.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
That feeling when a new unit you’ve written is really landing with students 💅 We love a surprise ‘and then everything was ruined’ reveal. ‘That was actually really good Madam!’ is either a compliment to me today or a damning indictment of my teaching last year. #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Tomorrow is JellyBosworth #historyteacher #ALevel #EarlyTudors
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Sumption on Today programme not challenged on his opposition to reparations for the slave trade. What a surprise. #historyteacher ‘I think they see a UK that has lost its pride in its past and so it’s a chance for £.’ So UK should be proud of its role in enslaving millions of people?
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Doing my Prevent refresher training - misogyny still isn’t listed as a form of extremism #education
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
‘Some other boys made me do it’ #Farage When is the BBC going to call him out on his BS?
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This episode was absolutely delightful. #Normans #historyteacher www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Word of Mouth - How the Normans changed the way we speak - BBC Sounds
Michael Rosen explores the impact of the Norman invasion on the English language.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Band of Brothers is on Amazon Prime video. The episode ‘Why we fight’ is one of the reasons I decided to study history at university (along with the documentary series People’s Century) and after this week, I needed a little reminder of why I wanted to be a teacher #historyteacher
static.klipy.com
Band Of Brothers Medic
ALT: Band Of Brothers Medic
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This book is so good - it’s the only example of bonds and recognisances ever being made interesting, Early Tudors folks. #historyteacher (the Sunnyff family story)
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
#historyteacher #VikingExpansion
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
There’s nothing like a 10 hour day to set you up for the new term, is there? #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Annoying me today: being sent several reminders to review an online service even though the ‘effort’ was clearly made by robots, not humans. Say this in my review. Get phone call and email from company to talk about my review. No! Just leave me alone and accept your crap feedback.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Crime and Punishment teachers, learn all about Moll Cutpurse - a good early Modern example of crime (and cross-dressing) #historyteacher #GCSE www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Not Just the Tudors - True Crime: Moll Cutpurse - London's Cross-Dressing Criminal - BBC Sounds
How did one woman scandalise sixteenth century London by refusing to live by its rules?
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Best audiobook I have ever listened to #currentlyreading #ImpossibleCreatures There are hundreds of characters in this story; many are not human, and Sam West gives them each their own distinct voice. It’s very well read and the story is gripping. Start with the first one in the series though.
Impossible Creatures: The Neverfear by Katherine Rundell. Audiobook cover. Read by Samuel West.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I’ve planned an entire lesson this morning! As a PRO-crastinator this is a big deal, because it’s not the last day of the holidays yet. #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
8 years of Zoya sitting on my laptop and waking me up at 4am. Look how innocent she was before she signed that pact with the devil to demolish my house.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I don’t know why there is so much about the Elizabethans at GCSE, because quite clearly James I’s Court was the place to be - it is absolutely batshit. I’m reading about the Cecil-Lake scandal. Updates on said scandal may follow. #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I’m listening to Persuasion, which I have never read before, and I am enjoying it a lot. I like the ‘one that got away-edness’ of it. #currentlyreading #JaneAusten www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... At the moment Anne and Wentworth are sitting on the same sofa! Whaaaaatttt!!!
bbc.co.uk
Persuasion - Chapter 8 - BBC Sounds
Captain Wentworth becomes a regular guest – and a favourite with the Miss Musgroves.
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Reposted by Helen
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
So, we found a live bat in our galleries. 🦇 a thread🦇
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I’m on p10 and love it already #historyteacher ‘Local history is the foundation of national and global history. When we can recover a story from the past that’s linked to places we know, it’s likely we’ll feel that history personally.’ Quite SHP/HAU, no?
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
About the death of Burghley’s daughter, Elizabeth Wentworth, who was only 18 years old, and how Elizabeth I pretty much ordered B back to work within days ‘because she needed his advice on the weighty manner of the Queen of Scots.’ I’d have been livid if I’d got that letter. #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Loving this book today #historyteacher It’s so easy to read and so interesting.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 14/08/2026
Cambridge University should have known better, Fleet Street should have known better, the people hungrily absorbing every bit of news about it, making newsrooms feel like they had to keep going with it as a story, should have known better, horrible horrible horrible
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Repeated listen today. If you haven’t read the book ‘Thinking Reading’ (or read the blog) you really should. It will blow your mind - and possibly make you cross that your ITT provider did not teach you how kids learn to read. It’s a science, and reading is not a natural skill #historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
#historyteacher
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Since I finished Careless People, I react to every ‘Meta is getting their comeuppance’ story with unrestrained glee.
static.klipy.com
Popcorn Guy Enjoys Popcorn While Relaxing
ALT: Popcorn Guy Enjoys Popcorn While Relaxing
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
OCR active results not open until 9am 🤡 #historyteacher #ALevel
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Ted Lasso had some wisdom about twins, and as a first-born twin, yes, Alice, it really does matter. And if my sister and I were on a football team we would scrap and squabble like Siobhan and Niamh. #TedLasso
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The BBC are making a new mini-series of Jane Eyre, which is my GOAT book. Why remake it? Perfection was achieved by Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens in 2006. ‘It’s been 20 years!’ No it hasn’t! It was last week! (It’s on iPlayer) www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... #JaneEyre
bbc.co.uk
Jane Eyre - Episode 1
After surviving a harsh charity school, orphan Jane Eyre takes a job as a governess. But her peaceful existence is suddenly shattered.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
History section at Waterstones Peterborough smashing it as ever #currentlyreading #historyteacher i didn’t know the Amin one was out in paperback so that was a nice surprise/impulse buy.
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Loved this. Loved. It. A ‘read it in one sitting’ book. Give it a go if you liked 84 Charing Cross Road (which gets a shout out in the book) or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Both of those books are in my top 10, so Tim’s not surprising I enjoyed this one! #currentlyreading
Picture shows the cover of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Reading about John Day and his underground printing press in Barholm during Mary I’s reign (Barholm is 11 minutes drive from my house) #historyteacher It helps to have mates who own most of a county who can help keep you safe. Must remember this.
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