I don’t usually share posts but I really couldn’t put it better. Perfect for Y10 & Y12 at this time of year: Why you should study History. www.instagram.com/p/Dc6ZzRWiJX...

Dr Estelle Paranque | Historian on Instagram: "Honestly, studying history is a terrible idea. You might start questioning things. You might realise the present didn’t just happen. You might become an...

3,650 likes, 81 comments - estelleprnq on September 5, 2026: "Honestly, studying history is a terrible idea. You might start questioning things. You might realise the present didn’t just happen. You ...

instagram.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

mirror.co.uk

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.

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...

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.

bbc.co.uk

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.

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. 🤦🏻

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

From an A level History student published in the Guardian yesterday. Shows far more insight than those behind the exam board specifications. Troubling but also refreshing. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Given the state of the world right now, this looks like a very important work of History. There was and still is, a rich Jewish political tradition outside of Zionism. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘For leftist Jews, the Bund is a model’: the radical history behind one of Europe’s biggest socialist movements

A new book by Molly Crabapple documents the rise and fall of a revolutionary Jewish party that fought against Zionism and for ‘solidarity across difference’

theguardian.com

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… 🤦🏻

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.