The 2014 Primary
National Curriculum
Name
Title
The new history curriculum 2014
•No one way of organising the curriculum.
•Chronology and narrative are key elements
•Focused on elements that broaden pupils knowledge of
history.
BUT
•Skill development a major driver
•Links between elements / content provides opportunities to
explore history.
•Doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
2
British History
Pupils should be taught the following:
• 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 to the time of Edward the Confessor
• a local history study
• a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends
pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
European and World History
Pupils should be taught the following:
• the achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where
and when the first civilizations appeared and a depth study of one of
the following: Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The
Shang Dynasty of Ancient China
• Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their
influence on the western world
• a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history one study chosen from: early Islamic civilization, including a study of
Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan civilization c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa)
c. AD 900-1300
Quick summary of the changes
New content
• The Stone Age to the Iron Age
• Thematic or turning point study
• Ancient civilizations and non European study
Deleted content
• The Tudors
• Victorian Britain or Britain since 1930
• The attainment target
The challenges
6
The challenges ahead
How are you going to resource the new content?
Where are you going to fit in the extra content you have to teach (9
studies/units /topics instead of 6)?
How are you going to create a coherent key stage plan that
develops children’s chronological understanding across KS2?
Will you still be able to teach the Tudors, Victorians, Britain since
1930?
How are you going to measure children’s progress in history?
Developing schemes …
So how do we organise the content to create
schemes of work that:
• fire pupils' curiosity and imagination
• develop pupils’ understanding of history at personal, local, national and
international levels
• help pupils to ask and answer meaningful questions
about the past
• enable pupils to make connections within and across different periods and
societies?
Studying content in overviews
and depth studies
Overview studies (enquiries)
that enable children to develop a broad knowledge and
understanding of the main events and people across a long
time span, develop a sense of period/era, and identify the
links and developments.
Depth studies (enquiries)
that enable pupils to immerse themselves in the rich detail
of the past through exploring some of the key events,
people or changes and making the big ideas and stories
more memorable.
Examples
10
Examples after Jerome Freeman
Year 3
Overview: What is history?
How do we find out about the recent past?
How do we find out about the past a very long time ago?
Why is life so different?
Characteristic
features
Interpretations
Evidence
Change &
continuity
Examples after Jerome Freeman
Year 4
Overview: Ancient Civilisations
Who were the Ancient Egyptians & Greeks?
How was life in Ancient Egypt & Greece different from life today?
What have Ancient Civilisations ever done for us?
Evidence
Characteristic
features
Cause &
consequence
Significance
Examples after Jerome Freeman
Year 5
Overview: the Invaders & Settlers
Who were the Romans, Scots, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings?
Why did they invade and settle in England?
How similar was life like in other parts of the World?
Change &
continuity
Evidence
Interpretations
Cause &
consequence
Examples – after Jerome Freeman
Year 6 (Version 1)
Overview: Why did the Industrial Revolution matter?
What was the Industrial Revolution?
How much did people’s everyday lives change in this period?
What did the Industrial Revolution do for us?
Cause &
consequence
Significance
Evidence
Change &
continuity
Colour Palette
Primary Colour Palette
Green
Orange
R33
G166
B84
R231
G77
B21
Teal
R29
G173
B167
Grey
Grey
Grey
(75% black)
(55% black)
(10% black)
R100
G99
B99
R146
G146
B146
R237
G237
B237
Secondary Colour Palette – To be used only as an extended palette to colour graphs/bar charts etc
80%
60%
40%
R77
R122 R166
G184 G202 G219
B119 B153 B187
15
80%
60%
40%
R236 R241 R245
G113 G148 G184
B68
B115 B161
80%
60%
40%
R74
R119 R165
G189 G206 G222
B185 B202 B220
White
R255
G255
B255