November Blog: Armistice Day and resource update
We wish all students and teachers who have just finished the November examination session a lovely, well earned break!
Armistice Day
Armistice Day is a significant day in the school calender; it gives the opportunity to remember the lives lost and sacrifices made in previous wars.
2026 is significant for being the 110th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme - one of the most tragic and significant battles of the First World War resulting in more than one million total casualties across all combatants over the 141-day campaign from July 1 to November 18, 1916.
This is an overview of the Battle of the Somme:
For IBDP students Armistice Day gives an opportunity for them to share their knowledge of this topic with the rest of the school via assemblies and/or displays.
See previous November Blogs such as this one for ideas and resources on activities/assemblies.
Armistice Day further provides the opportunity to talk about ongoing conflicts - Ukraine and Gaza being two of the the most prominent at the moment - and to remember soldiers and civilians who have died, been injured, or are still caught up in these wars.
This excellent CFR site shows where conflicts are ongoing and provides background and analysis on each one:
Global Conflict Tracker l Council on Foreign Relations
Other anniversaries this month include the following. Both of these link to the DP History course and could form the focus of a display/assembly/research by students.
- Nov 1956 - 70th Anniversary - US Supreme Court ruled racial segregation on public buses unconstitutional
- Nov 1956 - 70th Anniversary - End of Suez crisis
Resources Update
We are continuing to update the site with materials for the 2028 curriculum.
Recently completed:
- Paper 3 Europe: Democracy, authoritarianism and conflict in Spain (circa 1920–2020)
Topics in the process of being written include:
- Paper 2 Conflict: The Falklands War
- Paper 3 Americas: Regional Study 8: Emergence of the Americas in global affairs (1880–1945)
In the pipeline - coming soon:
- Paper 3 Americas - Great Depression
- Paper 2 Conflict - Second World War in Asia
- Paper 3 Africa and the Middle East: Regional Study 11
History Podcasts
So many of these now!
One of our favourite podcasts is The Rest is History with Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland.
They have recently done a series on The Terror in the French Revolution - highly recommended!
For the 70th Anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising, which we covered in the October Blog, they did the following episode - also excellent: