HISTORY LOCKDOWN TIPS FOR Y11: In Year 11 and studying history next year? Love history and want to get ahead of the game? Here's some ideas. Any other teachers out there- feel free to add to these.

Idea 1: Get reading for the units you will study next year. This should be your priority. Definitely get in touch with the history team at the school or sixth form college you will study at next year.

Find out what topics you will be studying, and ask whether they have any reading lists or recommendations. These may even be on their website. If no reading lists exists just have a search online to see what the most popular/ bestselling books are on those topics.

Idea 2: Improve your understanding of the ‘big story’ of history. This year you will have studied a thematic unit, probably on medicine, migration, warfare or crime and punishment. Now would be a great time to build on that and go even wider.

I would thoroughly recommend finding online/buying a copy of E.H. Gombrich’s ‘A Little History of the World’. It is written for young people, and should be easy to understand. As you read it note down anything you find interesting and want to find out more about.

You’ll get a nice list developing which will help with Tip 2. And, if you’re mega keen draw a timeline of the events Gombrich covers with as many pictures as you can spanning from 3100BC to 1945.

Idea 3: Find out some stuff you had no idea about but sounds really interesting. Make a list of 20 historical events/people/ figures you want to find out more about which you have never studied before. This could be from your Gombrich list, or from general Googling.

Keep your list broad and make sure it covers lots of different time periods. Then for each one spend an hour creating an A4 mind map covering as much as you possibly can through internet research.

The CrashCourse channel on YouTube is often a great place to start, as is the legendary http://www.timelines.tv . When doing this try and read a relevant article from https://www.historyextra.com/ . File all your mind maps away, because you never know when you might need one.

Idea 4: Read a history book. History books for adults are often daunting. So, here’s a few 20th century focused books which are brilliant, but at under 300 pages are short enough that you won’t feel out of your depth:

- ‘Death in Ten Minutes’ by Fern Riddell
- ‘Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918’ by Albert Marrin
- ‘Stasiland’ by Anna Funder
- ‘Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster’ by Svetlana Alexivich

The Penguin short monarch series is also great. Each one gives an overview of a monarch’s reign. https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/pmo/penguin-monarchs.html. If reading history sounds daunting, don’t forget most books are available as audiobooks too!

If you’re a teacher reading this feel free to add some more title you’d recommend which are around/under 300 pages in length. You don’t have to buy your books from Amazon- support your local bookshop, or order from a second-hand book site , such as http://www.abeboks.co.uk 

Idea 5: Start listening to a history podcast. There are so many great podcasts out there, which give you the opportunity to expand your historical knowledge. If you’ve never listened to podcast they are audio programmes, and you will have an app on your phone. They are all free.

The ‘You’re Dead to Me Podcast’ by Greg Jenner from Horrible Histories is awesome and light-hearted. A new one just out is ‘Killing Time’ with Rebecca Rideal which all to do with historical murder and death. The BBC’s ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ is also great.

Dan Snow’s History Hit is also a winner with 20 minute episodes. Try a few and see what you like the sound of. These could be great for building up your mind maps if you are following Tip 3.

Idea 6: Watch some documentaries. I've been very sad and created a school Youtube channel with loads of links to some great documentaries. Enjoy! Again, try and be active when watching them and use them as a source for makingnotes. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_ZhAiPE9mRS3fJOp6rGG6247GPEfiq2W

Idea 7: Watch a historical film/ TV series and then research how accurate it is. There are so many historical films out there. The key thing is to approach them critically. Once you have watched it draw up a table of ‘Aspects the Film Got Right’ and ‘Aspects the Film Got Wrong’.

A quick Google of ‘How accurate is…?’ will often be a good place to get you started. Think about the key characters though and do some further research-do they seem to be accurate?

Some recent films which are perfect for this task are Mary Queen of Scots, Peterloo and Darkest Hour. Try to analyse them as you would a source. Why have the events of the film been portrayed in the way they have? What can it tell you about how a society remembers these events?

How do you make this meaningful? Well this seems like a nice list, but how do you actually put it into a programme of study. Here’s a suggestion:

Week 1- Buy Gombrich and make notes. Aim for 40 pages a day. Also order books for courses next year, and at least one extra one on a different topic.

Week 2 Onwards- For Monday to Friday follow this timetable. AM- Reading session. Aim for 1 hour. Put your phone in another room. And read one of the books your ordered. This should be your main activity for the morning every weekday.

PM- Complete a 1 hour research task using internet/podcast/documentary research. Mix it up through your week so you don’t get bored. On Wednesday break from this slightly and in the AM session watch a historical film and in the PM session complete the accuracy table.

At the weekend finish off any remaining pages of your book. Finishing a book in a week will feel great. With the research tasks always try to set yourself a question to answer e.g. ‘Who were the Aztecs?’

Remember this is a suggestion. You could do more than this if you want, or less. Make sure you file anything you create into a History Lockdown folder. You never know when it might come in handy.

Some amazing history people/projects mentioned here: @greg_jenner @histryextra @RebeccaRideal @thehistoryguy @FernRiddell @BBCRadio4