KS1 History Curriculum

What are the KS1 National Curriculum History objectives?

The National Curriculum for primary History aims to provide children with a secure understanding of the past, and a coherent knowledge of Britain and the wider world from the earliest times right up to the modern era.

Here is the National Curriculum for KS1 History:

Purpose of study A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Aims The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• 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 
• 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 
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ 
• 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 
• 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 
• 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.

Subject Content - KS1

Pupils should develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. 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. They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. 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. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented. In planning to ensure the progression described above through teaching about the people, events and changes outlined below, teachers are often introducing pupils to historical periods that they will study more fully at key stages 2 and 3.

Pupils should be taught about:

• changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life
• events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]
• 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 [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell]
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.

PlanBee's KS1 Primary History Resources

PlanBee has a variety of ready-to-teach History schemes of work for KS1 that cover the National Curriculum requirements. Written by experienced teachers, these schemes of work are designed to cultivate children's inquisitiveness, enabling them to become critical historians, informed citizens and effective communicators. They will enable children to develop historical enquiry skills, become confident investigators and gain secure chronological knowledge of the past.

What should I teach for KS1 History?

There is a lot of scope in KS1 for teaching a broad range of topics and themes, thanks to the nonspecific nature of the four KS1 primary History curriculum objectives:

Changes within living memory:

• Changes with toys: how are toys and how people play different today from when my grandparents were alive?
• Changes in communication: how did people contact each other and share information in the past and how is that different to today?
• Changes in travel: how have transport methods changed and what effect does this have on people’s lives?
• Changes in fashion: how is what I wear different to what my parents and grandparents wore when they were children?
• Changes in education: what was school like for my grandparents and how is that different to school today?

For some of these, you may wish to go back further than living memory, for example, to look at the invention of the telephone in 1876, and this is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, sometimes it can be very beneficial for children’s chronological understanding. As long as the explore changes in living memory within the sequence of lessons, this is absolutely something you can include.

Events beyond living memory that are significant globally and nationally:

The Great Fire of London, which is mentioned as a non-statutory part of the objective, is a common favourite and for good reason. I would highly recommend teaching this event to your KS1 class (probably in Year 2) since there is such a lot of great historical learning that can be done. Other events beyond living memory to include could be:

• The first aeroplane flight (also mentioned in the non-statutory objectives)
• WW1 and Remembrance Day
• Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
• The moon landing
• The sinking of the Titanic
• The Battle of Hastings

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:

There are plenty of named examples in the primary History curriculum for this objective which you may or may not like to choose. If you’re looking for something outside the box though, other examples could include:

• Isaac Newton
• William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
• Christopher Wren and Isambard Kingdom Brunel
• Ada Lovelace and Tim Berners Lee
• Sir Francis Drake and Amelia Earhart

Whoever you choose to study, take the opportunity not only to explore their lives and achievements, but also what life was like during the periods in which these famous people lived. How was it different to life today? How would your life have been different if you had lived at the same time as Christopher Wren or Sir Francis Drake?

Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality:

This is a trickier objective to advise on due to its specificity. You may be lucky enough to live near the location of a famous event of the birthplace of a famous person. Near Liverpool? Study The Beatles and how their music changed pop culture in Britain and around the world. Near Nottingham? Explore the legend of Robin Hood, establishing the facts over the fiction.

But what do you do if nothing or no one immediately interesting or relevant comes to mind?

There are are a few national events you can draw on here if you come up with a dead end:

• VE Day celebrations: what happened in your locality when the war ended?
• The queen’s coronation: how and why did people celebrate?
• The king's coronation: how and why did people celebrate? How was this different to the queen's coronation?

Chances are though, that you will have to do some digging to see if something more specific is feasible:

• If you live in London, check out the English Heritage’s list of blue plaques to see if you can find an interesting historical figure you can use as the focus of your study.
• Use the National Trust’s list of the residences of famous people across the country to see if there are any relevant candidates.
• A good old Google search! You may be surprised at the rich history of your local area when you start investigating.