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Progression in Learning Over Three Key Stages

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National Curriculum 2014: Purpose of study A high-quality history education will help pupils gain:
  1. A coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
  1. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
  1. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
  1. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships.
                    National Curriculum 2014:  Aims (JULY 2013)
  1. know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
  2. know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
  3. gain and deploy a historically-grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
  4. understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
  5. understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
  6. gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Attainment targets

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
National Curriculum 2014: Progression through Key Stages 1, 2 and 3
Key stage 1 Key Stage 2 Key Stage 3
  1. Pupils should develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.
  2. They should 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.
  3. They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.
  4. They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.
  5. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
  1. Pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and   understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
  2. They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
  3. They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.
  4. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
  5. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources and that different versions of past events may exist, giving some reasons for this.
  6. In planning to ensure the progression described above through teaching the British, local and world history outlined below, teachers should combine overview and depth studies to help pupils understand both

 
  1. Pupils should extend and deepen their chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, so that it provides a well-informed context for wider learning.
  2. Pupils should identify significant events, make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends within periods and over long arcs of time.
  3. They should use historical terms and concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways.
  4. They should pursue historically valid enquiries including some they have framed themselves, and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response.
  5. They should understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
  6. In planning to ensure the progression described above through teaching the British, local and world history outlined below, teachers should combine overview and depth studies to help pupils understand both the long arc of development and the complexity of specific aspects of the content.
Key Stage 1 Key Stage 2 Key Stage 3
  1. Changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life
  2. Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally
  3. The lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.
  4. Significant historical events, people and   places in their own locality.

 
  1. Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
  2. The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
  3. Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
  4. The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor
  5. A local history study
  6. A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
  7. 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
  8. Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world
  9. 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
  1. The development of Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-15092. The development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-17453. Ideas, political power, industry and empire: Britain, 1745-19014. Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day In addition to studying the Holocaust…
  2. A local history study
  3. The study of an aspect or theme in British history that consolidates and extends pupils’ chronological knowledge from before 1066
  4.  At least one study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments e.g. Mughal India 1526-1857; China’s Qing dynasty 1644-1911; Changing Russian empires c.1800-1989; USA in the 20th Century.