Key Stage 2 · ages 7 to 11
Key Stage 2 history: what your child learns
Key Stage 2 history is mostly a journey through Britain from the Stone Age to 1066, with ancient Greece and a wider world study alongside. Children meet Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings, while schools choose one early civilisation, such as Egypt or Sumer, and one non-European society, such as Baghdad, the Maya or the kingdom of Benin. A local history study and a theme running beyond 1066 complete the picture.
Guides for parents
Key Stage 2 history
Alfred the Great and Athelstan
How Key Stage 2 children learn about Alfred the Great, the Viking wars and Athelstan, the first king of England, and how to judge who was significant.
Key Stage 2 history
Ancient Egypt
What KS2 children learn about Ancient Egypt: the Nile, pharaohs, pyramids, mummies and how we know. Common mistakes and simple ways to help at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Ancient Greek achievements
What KS2 children learn about the achievements of Ancient Greece: the Olympic Games, the Parthenon, theatre, philosophy, medicine and mathematics.
Key Stage 2 history
Ancient Greek life
What KS2 children learn about daily life in Ancient Greece: city-states, Athens and Sparta, gods, homes, school and slavery, and how we know from sources.
Key Stage 2 history
Ancient Sumer
What KS2 children learn if their school chooses Ancient Sumer: city-states, cuneiform writing on clay tablets, ziggurats and farming, plus ideas for home.
Key Stage 2 history
Anglo-Saxon Christian conversion
How Key Stage 2 children learn that Christianity spread through Anglo-Saxon Britain from Canterbury, Iona and Lindisfarne, and what monks and manuscripts show us.
Key Stage 2 history
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, villages and art
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, village life, place names, craftwork and treasure, and how historians know about them from evidence.
Key Stage 2 history
The Kingdom of Benin
What KS2 children learn about the Kingdom of Benin in West Africa: Benin City, the Oba, huge earthwork walls, brass casting, oral history and how we know about it.
Key Stage 2 history
Boudica and British resistance
How Key Stage 2 children learn about Boudica and the Iceni revolt against Rome, why it began, what the evidence shows and how to talk about it at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Bronze Age Britain
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Bronze Age Britain: new metal technology, religion and burial, Stonehenge, and evidence for travel and trade, plus home ideas.
Key Stage 2 history
The changing power of monarchs
How KS2 children study the changing power of kings and queens after 1066, with John, Anne and Victoria as typical case studies, plus misconceptions and ideas for home.
Key Stage 2 history
Danegeld, laws and Edward the Confessor
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Danegeld, how Anglo-Saxon justice worked, and how Edward the Confessor’s death in 1066 led to a struggle for the throne.
Key Stage 2 history
The earliest civilisations
What KS2 children learn about where and when the first civilisations appeared, why they grew beside great rivers, how to place them on a timeline and how to help at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Early Islamic civilization and Baghdad
What KS2 children learn about early Islamic civilization and Baghdad around AD 900: the round city, scholars, paper, translation, trade and contrasts with Britain.
Key Stage 2 history
Greek influence on the western world
How Ancient Greece still shapes our world: democracy, the Olympic Games, words, buildings, theatre and science. What KS2 children learn and how to help at home.
Key Stage 2 history
The Indus Valley civilisation
What KS2 children learn if their school chooses the Indus Valley: planned cities such as Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, drains, seals, trade, and an undeciphered script.
Key Stage 2 history
Iron Age Britain
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Iron Age Britain: iron tools, hill forts, tribal kingdoms, farming, art and culture, and how to help your child at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Greek and Roman legacy
How KS2 children explore the legacy of ancient Greek and Roman art, architecture, language and ideas on later British history, with a worked example and home activities.
Key Stage 2 history
A local history study
How primary schools teach a local history study in KS2: choosing a place or period, using maps, photographs and records as sources, common mistakes and ideas for home.
Key Stage 2 history
Mayan civilization c. AD 900
What KS2 children learn about the Maya around AD 900: city-states, pyramids, writing, calendars, maths, maize and chocolate, and why many cities were abandoned.
Key Stage 2 history
Stone Age Britain
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Stone Age Britain, from hunter-gatherers to early farmers and Skara Brae, how archaeologists work, and how to help at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Roman conquest and Hadrian’s Wall
What Key Stage 2 children learn about how the Romans conquered Britain, why Hadrian’s Wall was built, how we know about it from sources, and how to help at home.
Key Stage 2 history
Roman invasions and the army
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Julius Caesar’s attempts to invade Britain, the successful invasion under Claudius, and why the Roman army was so powerful.
Key Stage 2 history
Romans leave, Anglo-Saxons arrive
What Key Stage 2 children learn about why the Romans left Britain around AD 410 and how the Anglo-Saxons and Scots came to settle, with a worked enquiry for home.
Key Stage 2 history
Romanisation of Britain
How Key Stage 2 children learn what changed in Britain under Roman rule: roads, towns, baths, language and beliefs, and how we know about it from evidence.
Key Stage 2 history
The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China
What KS2 children learn about China’s Shang Dynasty: oracle bones, bronze, kings and ancestors, and how historians use archaeology to piece the story together.
Key Stage 2 history
Social history through time
How KS2 children study change over time in an aspect of social history after 1066, such as crime and punishment or 20th-century leisure, with examples and tips.
Key Stage 2 history
A turning point in British history
How KS2 children study a significant turning point in British history after 1066, such as the first railways or the Battle of Britain, and learn to judge why it mattered.
Key Stage 2 history
Viking raids and invasion
What Key Stage 2 children learn about Viking raids on Britain, including Lindisfarne in AD 793, the Great Army, the Danelaw and how to separate fact from myth.
Everything in the Key Stage 2 history curriculum
The National Curriculum topics for Key Stage 2, in the order the National Curriculum lists them.
British history
- Stone Age Britain: late Neolithic hunter-gatherers and early farmers
- Bronze Age Britain: religion, technology and travel
- Iron Age Britain: hill forts, tribal kingdoms, farming, art and culture
- Roman invasions of Britain and the power of the Roman army
- Roman conquest of Britain and Hadrian’s Wall
- British resistance to Rome: Boudica
- The ‘Romanisation’ of Britain: technology, culture and beliefs
- Roman withdrawal and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and Scots
- Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, village life, art and culture
- Christian conversion in Anglo-Saxon Britain: Canterbury, Iona and Lindisfarne
- Viking raids and invasion
- Anglo-Saxon resistance: Alfred the Great and Athelstan
- Danegeld, Anglo-Saxon laws and justice, and Edward the Confessor
Local history
British history beyond 1066
World history
- The earliest civilizations: where and when they appeared
- Depth study option: Ancient Sumer
- Depth study option: the Indus Valley civilization
- Depth study option: Ancient Egypt
- Depth study option: the Shang Dynasty of Ancient China
- Ancient Greece: Greek life
- Ancient Greece: Greek achievements
- Ancient Greece: Greek influence on the western world
- Non-European society option: early Islamic civilization, including Baghdad c. AD 900
- Non-European society option: Mayan civilization c. AD 900
- Non-European society option: Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300