This Year 7 History lesson introduces students to Herodotus as an important figure in the study of the ancient world and the development of historical writing. The resource helps students examine how Herodotus investigated events, gathered stories, and attempted to explain the causes of conflict, especially in the Greco Persian Wars. Students analyse his role as a traveller, storyteller, and early historian whose work shaped how later societies record and interpret the past.

The lesson follows a clear case study structure: who he was, what he did, what evidence survives, and why he matters historically. Students explore Herodotus’ methods of inquiry, his use of eyewitness accounts and cultural observations, and the surviving texts that reveal how he organised and explained historical events. A range of student activities support source analysis, discussion and debate, creative and divergent thinking, structured writing, and short consolidation checks. The transferable skill is evaluating historical accounts and considering how evidence, perspective, and interpretation shape our understanding of the past.

This resource is provided as non editable PDFs and is not designed as editable PowerPoints. Teachers can upload slides to their LMS, print selected pages for classroom use, display them to support discussion, analysis, and writing, or upload them to presentation or design platforms if they wish to adapt the material (formatting may vary depending on the program).