“Membership to this site has paid dividends at our comprehensive school. Our results were astonishing  90+% grades 9-4, 82% grades 9-5, 44% grades 9-7, average progress residual of +1.28. I cannot recommend History Resource Cupboard highly enough.“ Marc Scruby, Head of History, Priory School, Lewes

“We got our best ever GCSE results this year have used your GCSE packages for the whole course. Students love them and they are designed to ensure maximum progress is made, whilst still inspiring students to love history and have a passion for learning.   Bee Speechley, Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester

The resources from History Resource Cupboard are amazing, they have formed the basis of our plan of learning for GCSE.  The lessons are well structured, engaging and the perfect balance between content and activities.  All lessons enable the students to access higher thinking skills effortlessly. Rowena Mcfarlane   Rosset School Harrogate

Lessons from History Resource Cupboard are engaging and are built around enquiry questions.  History Resource Cupboard is brilliant for a small history department. With tightening budgets, this is definitely one resource we won’t be doing without! Clare Shobbrook Trinity School, Lewisham

The lessons have allowed us to teach the content and skills of the 9-1 GCSE in a way that engages and motivates our students. They’ve proved to be excellent value. Lisa Kelly Cheadle Hulme High School, Stockport

Our subscription to History Resource Cupboard has definitely been money well spent.  The GCSE lessons are high quality, engaging and well planned to meet the demands in the 9-1 GCSE specs.  Our students are actively engaged in learning and growing in confidence. These are the kind of lessons history teachers would want to create if they had the time! Katy Bentley, Hyde Community College, Greater Manchester

The resources and lessons are so clearly created by excellent teachers and with students at the heart of the process.  Resources are student-friendly yet historically rigorous, always with a focus on how best to ‘hook’ and engage students.  In short, brilliant. Phil Jackson, Beverley Grammer, Yorkshire

The lessons and resources are simply incredible! The enthusiasm and passion for history shines through providing added engagement and interest from my students… At a time of huge change within the subject the resources lessen the many hours of planning and give you everything you need and more for the new specifications! Wayne Doherty, Immanuel College, Bradford.

The superb materials for the new GCSE have saved me a huge amount of time in planning and have been carefully tailored to the new specifications. Lessons are carefully planned with a variety of tasks and materials to help keep students motivated. The resources have been a fantastic help in moving my department forward. Thank you! Ase Welsh, Head of Humanities, Astley Cooper School, Buckinghamshire.

The History Resource Cupboard provides excellent resources and SoW. They are tailored to the topic and can be used for an excellent series of lessons which widens pupil participation and knowledge. David Murrie, Barnsley Academy, Barnsley.

Lessons are enquiry lead, with clear and meaningful outcomes defined by clear success criteria, making marking more productive and less time-consuming. Benjamin Groom, St Georges Academy, Sleaford, Lincolnshire

The resources are a brilliant ‘go to’. They help us teach lessons with a focus on enquiry based learning.  Teachers and students alike have loved them.Nicola Skarzynski, Court Moor School, Fleet, Hampshire

“The enquiry approach engages & inspires all. The large range of resources available through full membership has been invaluable in my planning.” Diane McGarry, The Bourne Community College, West Sussex

“Invaluable resource that will save you hundreds of hours in planning whether you are new or experienced. Best money we have spent’ Alan Chan, Senior Leader and History Teacher, Palmer Catholic Academy, Essex

“Engaging, well-resourced and most importantly thought-provoking for students. History Resource Cupboard’s school’s membership is great value.”Dave Baugh, Head of History Wardle Academy, Rochdale

“Brilliant & engaging resources. The variety of learning. approaches is superb with my mixed ability classes”. Rebecca Salt, Head of History The Royal School, Surrey

Watch this short clip to see what teachers have been saying about History Resource Cupboard membership scheme.

“Hi Richard I just wanted to say thank you for the wonderful lesson about the debt situation in France. This lesson was graded by my line manager as ‘outstanding’. The whole lesson was so well constructed, it flowed beautifully. I especially liked the different sized pieces of card to represent amounts of money. A great idea which helped to make an extremely difficult concept accessible for the whole group.”

Christina Brown –  History Teacher at Harrow Way Community School in Andover

Dear Richard and team, Just a brief thank you. We had our lovely friends from Ofsted to visit this week… Day 2 and the pressure was on for some outstanding learning to be evidenced. So where did I turn in my hour of need. Your website. I used the lesson on the quote about Germany in 1923. The inspector was blown away by the quality of pupil engagement and participation in what was difficult stuff. The lesson flowed wonderfully as the pupils questions led the enquiry deeper and deeper. It was given an outstanding but more importantly the pupils loved it and so did I. It was one of those brilliant I know why I teach history moments! Oh yer and no exam question at the end…”

Adrian Carr SLT member and history teacher Blackon High School, Cheshire

Here are some reviews of Richard’s work from training courses he has delivered:

• ‘Excellent, the best trainer I have encountered for a very long time.’
• ‘Fantastic’
• ‘Engaging and thought provoking’
• ‘Superb’
•  ’Passionate and clear’
• ‘Excellent, very engaging with clear ideas’
• ‘Richard came armed with an amazing array of ideas and strategies to engage and motivate our student historians.’

A whole day with an inspirational educationalist! How privileged we felt to be able to work with Richard for the day. He came armed with an amazing array of ideas and strategies to engage and motivate our student historians. Enquiry led lessons were the main focus – with an emphasis on how to make History exciting and purposeful. This has been a fantastic tool for us and our students are currently creating displays for our Local Heritage Museum and our local hospital. Going ‘back to basics’ with  a clear model of the various stages of Enquiry led lessons enabled us to see where we needed to improve our teaching. . What more can we say other than a huge thank you.”

Sam Stewart Head of History at Corby Business Academy 

“I was so impressed with Richard’s ‘Leading History to Outstanding’ course that I booked him for a consultancy day to work with the History Department at my school.  Richard’s ideas have provided my department with fresh and vibrant ways of covering course content and tackling assessment.  I have used a range of lessons offered by the ‘History Resource Cupboard’ from Key Stage 3 enquiries on the ‘Black Death’ and ‘Tea’ to the Germany Depth Study enquiries for Key Stage 4.  The lessons never fail to engage the students and they always provide interesting and relevant angles for enquiries.  The formula for achieving outstanding lessons is actually quite simple but the results have been multi-faceted with students enjoying their learning and approaching assessed tasks with enthusiasm.  I would highly recommend the resources that are available on this website…I only wish there were even more of them!” Jude Gray, Head of History Sacred Heart School, Redcar

“When Neil and Richard provided the opening plenary at the SHP Conference  they more than lived up to expectations with an hour of enthusing, rigorous and practical activities. Their website captures these qualities – it’s well worth opening their cupboard door.”  Ian Dawson, former Director and Publishing Director of SHP, author, consultant and founder of thinkinghistory website.

“History may be becoming a (kind of) core subject in these Ebacc days, but the key to pupil achievement remains, as it always has, lively lessons which motivate learning.  Neil Bates and Richard McFahn have been providing these for years as outstanding practitioners and have now put some of their best ideas on this website.  Active Learning is at the heart of the pupil experience, but for Richard and Neil this is underpinned by a sound understanding of progression and the importance of making motivating tasks lead to worthwhile learning outcomes. Look at Making History Meaningful in the Advice tab for approaches to your own schemes of work. I hope you enjoy teaching these lessons as much as I have enjoyed seeing these two in action.” Chris Culpin, author of numerous history textbooks, consultant, former Director of the Schools History Project and GCSE Examiner.  

“This was the best course that I have been on in terms of ideas, practical examples, resources provided, I  left just buzzing with ideas of how to improve the learning of our students and for the first time in a very long time was actually happy to go home and work of an evening!!’ Erin Wallace – Humanities Leader at Ernulf Academy, Cambridgeshire describing Leading History to Outstanding, led by Richard McFahn.