What are the major beats of a secondary school UK history curriculum?

by gmanflnj

I grew up in the US and our US history class focused on a handful of major events/beats, primarily: Colonial Times, American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Prohibition, Great Depression WWII, and Civil Rights Era.

What are the major beats of UK history learned in UK primary and secondary schools? What are the major things every child grows up learning in history class?

chilari

This is the government's guidance on the national curriculum for Key Stages 1-3 - ie, primary school and the first 3 years of secondary school, ages 5-14. It will vary by school but by the age of 14 a British school child may have covered:

  • Stonehenge and the society that built it

  • The Roman invasion of Britain and defeat of Boudicca

  • The Roman withdrawal from Britain

  • The introduction of Christianity into Britain

  • The Viking invasion

  • King Alfred vs the Vikings

  • 1066, from Edward the Confessor, those who claimed to be his heir (King Harold, Harald Hardrada and Duke William of Normandy) and the battles between these claimants with William's ultimate victory.

  • The Magna Carta

  • The Black Death

  • The War of the Roses (Tudors vs Lancastrians)

  • The rule of Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries

  • The Spanish Armada in 1588 (when Spain attempted to invade and the English stopped them)

  • The English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell

  • The Act of Union in 1707

  • The transatlantic slave trade

  • The French revolution

  • The industrial revolution

  • World War I and its causes

  • World War II and the Holocaust

  • One or two local history studies, which may include studying and taking field trips to local castles, Roman sites, industrial museums, historic potteries, dockyards and so on, depending on what is available in the local area.

  • One or two studies looking beyond Britain at the wider world and its influence on or interactions with Britain, such as ancient Greece, Qing dynasty China, or beyond the timeline encompassed in the above summary, such as the Neolithic revolution, or across the timeline, such as crime and punishment at various different periods of history.

1066 seems to be the cutoff point between primary and secondary school, in general, but school children in primary school should have covered at least one major topic after it (it was the Tudors at my school) and one topic outside the UK; in secondary school a pre-1066 topic may be covered, or perhaps a social topic which can be examined in multiple time periods, as well as a non-UK topic such as looking at a period of history in Greece, China, India or the USA.

Key Stage 3 is where compulsory history education ends. After this, students pick their GCSE subjects, and history is an elective option.