In order to distract myself from the disgraceful policy making and communication with schools, I’ve decided to write down a few reasons I think 2020 was probably a good year for history teaching in the UK.

1. The increase in high quality support to teach more ambitious, representative history. Notably the webinars and website on African Kingdoms are invaluable and remove the excuses around not taking African history seriously at KS3. Also here you can see the continued increase...

...in resources on the HA website and, indeed the increased use and development of meanwhile, elsewhere - 130,000 users in 2020 alone. Ambitious history teaching isn’t just a pipe dream, it is very doable.

2. New articles being written that make a whole new generation of history teachers think. For instance @michaeldoron’s TH article on world-building and @Teach_A_B’s TH article on ‘staying with the shot’ will be on all ITE reading lists for years to come.

3. Communities of practice being developed (e.g. between teachers @HASWNetwork or between teachers/historians/museums #histberks) or going from strength to strength (e.g. @historybookgrp)

4. Online conferences generating genuine forums for discussion and inspiration. Since March we have seen #curricularium have well over 1,500 attendees, TMIcons 1,000+, plus HA and SHP both try different formats and remain incredibly popular.

5. Widely and easily accessible historian talks aimed at students. For instance the talks arranged by @Miss__Angell mean there is no reason why any A Level pupil couldn’t engage with a live historian discussion pitched at their level.

6. New history teachers revisiting old questions in light of recent historiographical trends. For instance @MissElsdon and @misshlhoward at #wlfs on material culture or @OliveyJacob and @MonsieurBenger on historical perspective at SHP both raised the level of debate.

7. Podcasts of practitioners. Personally, few things have resonated or made such an impact with me as the @VirtuallyTeach podcast. Incredible teachers giving insight into their on-going struggles to be great history teachers.

8. Popularity of intense training opportunities. @HughJRichards’ upcoming leadership in history teaching course, and the HA Teacher Fellowships have been inundated this year with applications. This really bodes well for our community as so many want to keep pushing themselves.

There is much to keep working on. Interpretations and Significance are not always done well or consistently. Some curricula content is so outdated it simply isn’t worth learning. Exam boards must update specs. And question stems at GCSE continue to suck joy out of the subject.

But on the whole all the preceding positives have generally, in my experiences, nudged the profession in a good direction, where we have keep moving the discourse forward and improve the quality of curricula and pedagogy towards more authentic, representative history.

For instance, on the whole, is a history teacher likely to ask whether there was an Elizabethan Golden Age without considering the privateering and actions in the New World that made it possible? I think...less likely than a year ago.

Or is a history teacher likely to ask whether the British Empire was a force for good, encouraging pupils to compare genocide with railways, slavery with democracy? I think...less likely than a year ago.

And is a new history teacher increasingly able to reach out to a ever wider range of supportive practitioners, communities and resources, and engage in critical, constructive forums in accessible ways? Personally I think so. Which makes 2020 a good year for history teaching imho.