The history curriculum in schools

What is history?

History is a foundation subject within the National Curriculum, and as such is part of every child's entitlement. As a distinct subject discipline, history is:

• a process of enquiry
• an evidence-based interpretation and construction of the past
• a debate about interpretations of the past
• the exercise of informed imagination
• the study of the human condition in all its richness and complexity.

Why teach history?

What can a study of the past contribute to young children's education?

The National Curriculum Orders make explicit history's distinctive contribution to the school curriculum.

The Nuffield Primary History project view

History is an irreplaceable resource for gaining insight into and critically examining the human condition and the ways in which societies work.

We all come out of the past, and what happened there influences what happens here and now - we need to know so we can understand the world today.

Through history, we can help children to understand how human beings behave and why people act as they do
By getting inside the past, we can help children to respect and value each different period and society in its own terms.

The National Curriculum's programme of study for history has three related components:

• knowledge, skills and understanding (KSU),
• breadth of study, and
• the attainment target
  (National Curriculum Handbook for primary teachers in England, DfEE/QCA, 1999)

See the next page Knowledge, skills, and understanding