Key Stage 1

Pupils should:

• Develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases to describe the passage of time.
• Know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework, and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
• Use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.
• Ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.
• Understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past, and identify different ways in which it is represented.

Key focuses

• Changes in national life within living memory.
• Historical events beyond living memory, with national and/or international significance.
• The lives of individuals who have contributed significant achievements.

Key Stage 2

Pupils should

• Continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of local, British, and world history.
• Use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.
• Establish clear narratives within and across the studied historical periods.
• Note connections, contrasts, and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
• Address questions about change, cause, similarity, difference, and significance.
• Construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
• Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Key focuses

• Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
• The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain.
• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots.
• The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England, up to the time of Edward the Confessor.
• A local history study (this will of course vary from school to school.)
• A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066. (E.g. the changing power of monarchs – using case studies such as John, Anne, and Victoria.)
• The achievements of the earliest civilisations, such as Ancient Egypt or Ancient China.
• Ancient Greece, its achievements, and its influence on the western world.
• A non-European society that provides contrasts with British history, such as early Islamic civilisation, or the Mayan civilisation.