iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

There’s so much negativity on social media about teachers returning to school. Much is well-founded: each year the elasticity of our goodwill is stretched further. I’m as jaded as the next teacher; BUT I STILL get a buzz at the prospect of meeting new students & introducing them to new histories.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I’m horrified looking at the comments on posts from the Auschwitz Memorial Museum. It’s become a magnet for antisemites, Holocaust deniers and moronic whataboutery. I’ve taken students on trips to the camp most years. I’ve attended countless Gazza protests. There’s ABSOLUTELY no contradiction.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I’m quite proud of my department’s attempts to decolonise our History curriculum. But I’m often embarrassed at my subject knowledge on Africa. I guess it reflects the curriculum experience of my generation of History teachers. Holiday reading is an opportunity to address this; and I recommend this.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Another results day; GCSEs this week. As always good luck to this year’s Y11. A major milestone - although maybe not as life defining as the hype would suggest. More important is the transition to A levels; as big a leap in someways as the step up to university. I’m excited for our new 6th Formers.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I have no particular knowledge of the ins and outs of the Jason Arday case but I do know that we have witnessed the hounding to death of a black academic. And yet disgraced white politicians are immune to this level of abuse and keep bouncing back to relaunch their careers.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Two days to A Level results day. Good luck to all Year 13s - but especially my History students! Predictably the media is full of negative stories about ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, student debt & grade inflation. Ignore all of that; you’re at one of the most exciting crossroads. Just enjoy your moment.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

It’s embarrassing to be in France and see a Reform MP using references to the German occupation of 1940 as fuel for a populist anti-migrant nationalism. Ironically the very same ideas that inspired the Petainists and their ‘national revolution’ 🤦🏻 www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

mirror.co.uk

Reform MP blasted over 'disgusting' swipe at French WW2 heroes

Reform MP Sarah Pochin has come under fire over an attack on the French government after it said Nigel Farage's plan would be a 'violation' of its sovereignty

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I wish we could get past the false dichotomy or academic vs practical skills. My school was a comprehensive that it thought was still a grammar. I fancied doing Metalwork but was told that was for the CSE boys / not the O level stream. Now I’m a teacher I destress by tinkering with old motorcycles.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Having taken both an academic route in an elite university AND a vocational route with a craft apprenticeship in industry I welcome this if it is properly resourced. Education shouldn’t just be a path to employment. What’s wrong with creating renaissance men & women? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Schools to offer technical subjects to pupils from age 14, Burnham says

The government wants pupils to take courses like AI and manufacturing which are linked to local jobs.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The last weekend of the academic year. And one of the few that is entirely marking-free. So I’ve indulged myself historically by reading some Eric Hobsbawm in the sun. Then coming inside for some shade and binge watching ‘Our Friends In The North’. Superb poignant social history of my own lifetime.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Pondering the irony of teaching Y10 about the follies of 1920s prohibition. How a blunt instrument criminalised swathes of the population, drove consumption underground and led to the rise of organised crime. At the same time as explaining a forthcoming blanket ban on social media for under 16s. 🤦🏻

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Phew. The end of another exam season. Thankfully both GCSE & A level papers were fair with accessible question wording addressing mainstream topics. Good. It’s not that exams should be easy but they should allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the core parts of the curriculum.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Back from school after doing my annual half-term English Revolution A level revision day. A milestone in the school cycle. Always good day but tinged with some melancholy. Firstly that everything in the topic I live is about to be reduced to a two hour exam, and bidding farewell to another cohort.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

That time again - the first GCSE History exam is this week. Good luck to all students - most teachers feel your pain. And share your frustration at this crazy system that experts 16 year olds to cope with 20-30 exams in three or four weeks. A levels and university feels like a breeze in comparison.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

It’s annoying now that when we teach Y8 about the Reform movement we have to explain they will be learning about the heroic struggle for democracy at Peterloo and the campaigns of the Chartists. Not angry red-faced blokes putting flags on lamp-posts.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

A personal connection as a former print-worker and NGA member, I’m proud to recall that on this day in 1926 compositors at the Daily Mail refused to typeset an article attacking striking miners. This escalated the dispute into the General Strike.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

And thanks again to the Trump administration for reviving an interest in medieval history: Evoking the memory of the Avignon Papacy when puppet popes were effectively held captive by the French kings. Of course the 14th Century one of the worst periods in European history to be alive… 🤦🏻

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Thanks to Trump for illustrating (again) why a little knowledge of History goes a long way to nurturing our humanity. The ignorance of talking about ‘bombing back to the Stone Age’ & eradicating a civilisation’ is beautifully shown in this map. Civilisation in Iran coming millennia before Europe.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Just visited St Mary’s Putney - site of the 1647 debates. There’s a commemorative plaque & info boards in what’s essentially a cubicle. The National Civil War centre in Newark just focuses on military aspects. But the political aspects of the English Revolution are absent from public history.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I love History - but I don’t want to live in the past. Why the absurd conventions in schools that we make students dress as if it was the 1950s and address their teachers as if it was the 1850s?

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Louis Theroux’s documentary on the manosphere is by turns depressing, terrifying & infuriating. Anyone who works with young men really needs to watch it. It also has to be said that whilst we need a discourse on how hard it is to be a teenage boy nowadays; it’s still harder to be a teenage girl.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Feeling a bit emotional today to hear from a former student who has just completed his doctorate in History. I’ve a few years to go yet but it has inspired to dust off some long forgotten ideas for a PhD when I retire. Teaching is always about the circle of life …

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Before studying & teaching civil rights, I was aware of Jesse Jackson’s attempts to get the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s - and his racist vilification. Makes me realise how figures like him and MLK might be revered in death but were hated at the time by those who felt threatened.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Very humbled to be invited to deliver a session on teaching A level today to the History PGCE cohort at UCL/IoE, where I did my own teacher training. Lovely to meet a new generation of history educators and play even a very small part in helping them on their way.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

There’s a crisis in SEND provision & support for adolescent mental health. School infrastructure is literally crumbling all around us. And a teacher recruitment & retention crisis. But the government are going to intervene and micromanage the issue of smart phones … playing to the gallery.

provision.support

Alertmanager

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Today in 1649 Charles 1st was executed-‘not in a darkened corner but in the full light of day for all the nation to behold’. Last week I watched the film Nuremberg. Both addressing the issue how do we hold our leaders to account when there is no legal precedent?

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The best of teaching times, the worst of teaching times. Two days of gruelling Ofsted inspection. And today an inspiring CPD afternoon on teaching empire with like-minded teachers in other London schools. Sharing practice in doing justice to complex (& in the current climate controversial) History.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

One of the pleasures of teaching is staying in touch with former students and seeing where life takes them over the years. I was particularly delighted this week to host a teacher training placement for an ex-student who is now a History teacher. Passing it on. The circle of life and all that …

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I’m the Oxbridge guy at my school. This time of year I’m encouraging a new set of 6th form to consider applying & joining the enrichment programme I run. My biggest challenge is breaking down misconceptions that it’s only for the posh. This sets me back years. 🤦🏻 www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Cambridge college to target elite private schools for student recruitment

Exclusive: Trinity Hall’s new policy described as a ‘slap in the face’ for state-educated students

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Under the Trump administration, Howard Zinn’s work has been banished from US classrooms. Now more than ever Americans really should be studying this classic.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

The BBC mini series on the Titanic is relatable public history at its best. Using primary sources as its basis - a teacher could create a whole number of enquiry lessons around it. The most powerful for me is what it tells us about class in Edwardian society. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

bbc.co.uk

BBC Two - Titanic Sinks Tonight

The story of the sinking of the Titanic in real time.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

David Olusoga becoming the most important public historian of a generation. Watching his latest Empire series makes me proud we were early adopters of the Migration, Empires & People option for GCSE. If nothing else it pisses off all the right people in the culture wars. youtu.be/dQeXmTSJHHs?...

youtu.be

Empire with David Olusoga Trailer

YouTube video by Continuity Chronicles

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Intuitively I am very nervous about the current suggestions to get rid of trial by jury. There are many good reasons to feel that way. But I do suspect that many of the people who are citing Magna Carta as the guardian of our civil liberties can’t have actually read the 1215 document.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

As teachers we sometimes forget how we can be inspired by students: I met up with an ex- student. They’ve followed a roundabout path in education & have now just started a degree several years after leaving school. They’ve never been happier. A role model that education isn’t a conveyor belt.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

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.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

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.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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...

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

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.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Back from visiting Auschwitz/ Birkenau. Exhausting physically, mentally and emotionally. A privilege to share this experience with our students.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

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.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Time of year of anniversary of me being made redundant from my previous career. Also time for advising students about university choices and seeing ex-students who’ve graduated & now stressing over careers. My example; it’s ok not to know at 18 or 21. You’ll find your path if you stay open minded.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

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

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Excited to be taking a new bunch of Year13s to Auschwitz next week. Did the usual parents briefing I’ve delivered many times before - depressing to think that given the current state of the world, the trip is more relevant now than when I first did it 12 years ago.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

The trouble with being a History teacher is that watching the news triggers historical parallels: Now I’m haunted by the fact that in 1934 most Germans who voted Nazi weren’t necessarily antisemitic - they were just prepared to overlook Nazi racism because they wanted to ‘reclaim their country’.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

A week to contemplate the revolving door of teaching. New classes. A dinner for History A Level leavers off to university (one of my favourite events of the year). And meeting up with former students now returned home after graduating uni. A continuous community stretching across the years.

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Much as I enjoy the holidays, I’m ready for a new school year. But I dread starting it with interminable exams analysis & unveiling of new policies & mission statements. Imagine a world where teachers were shown this from Akala at INSET to inspire them for the task ahead. youtu.be/YsK3Q-QNcpQ?...

youtu.be

Akala on Education

YouTube video by Double Down News

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HWS History @hwshistory.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

A joyous GCSE results day yesterday. But why all the fuss at age 16 when education & training now extends until 18? When I was at school most students left at 16 to start work/join the dole queue. We’re due an overhaul of education & assessment system - that needs some brave & visionary leadership.

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