Widening Participation

The History Department at King’s are working to widen participation in the study of history, through events run in collaboration with local state schools. These have included one-off taster lectures and workshops and multi-week schemes running across a semester. These events offer students insight into the forms of research-led and seminar-style teaching they might encounter at university and introduce them to topics and approaches that stretch far beyond their curriculum. They have proven an excellent way to encourage students from underrepresented backgrounds to consider studying history.

If you are involved in the teaching of history in state secondary or further education and would like to organise an event in collaboration with academics at King’s, we would love to hear from you!

Contact: Edward Mair

If you work at a school within the M25, please also consider signing up to our History Teachers’ Network.

Past Events

Researchers in the Department have facilitated several initiatives that take their passion for their subjects and studies to a larger, more diverse audience of students.

David Brydan has worked with the secondary schools to support the teaching of 20th century history. He helped to develop the Historical Association's teacher fellowship programme 'The Cold War in the Classroom'. In 2019 he co-edited Exploring and Teaching Twentieth-Century History with the Historical Association, an edited collection for secondary school teachers with contributions from over thirty historians, teachers and textbook authors. He regularly visits schools in and around London to deliver talks for students and CPD sessions for teachers.

Social Mobility at King’s

King’s also offer a wide range of programmes for students from primary age to Year 13 who are underrepresented in higher education. This includes the popular K+ programme, KCL’s flagship programme for sixth form students.

Colleagues in the History Department offer academic taster sessions for the K+ programme to offer students a sense of what it is like to study at King’s.