Key Stage 2 history · World history

KS2 Ancient Egypt: a guide for parents

Ancient Egypt is one of four civilizations that the National Curriculum lets primary schools choose for a depth study; the others are Sumer, the Indus Valley and Shang China. Children learn where and when Egyptian civilization began, how people lived along the Nile, what they believed about death, and, just as importantly, how historians and archaeologists work out all of this from the evidence that survives.

Ancient Egypt, explained

The curriculum asks schools to give an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared, and then to study one of them in depth. Many schools choose Egypt, but yours may have picked another, and that is perfectly normal. A civilization, in this context, means a society with cities, rulers, writing, specialist jobs and shared beliefs. Egyptian civilization grew up along the River Nile about 5,000 years ago and lasted for around 3,000 years, until Egypt became part of the Roman world after the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC.

Almost everything in Egypt depended on the Nile. Most of the country is desert, but each late summer the river flooded and left behind rich black silt, so farmers along its banks could grow wheat, barley and flax. The river was also the main road, with boats carrying stone, grain and people up and down. Children usually learn that Egyptian society was organised like a pyramid: the pharaoh at the top, then priests and officials, then scribes, then craftworkers, and the great majority of people, who were farmers, at the bottom. The pharaoh was both ruler and a link between people and the gods.

Egyptians believed that life continued after death, so they prepared carefully for it. Wealthy people were mummified: the body was dried with natron, a natural salt, and wrapped in linen, a process that took around 70 days. The great pyramids, such as the Great Pyramid at Giza, built about 4,600 years ago, were royal tombs. Later pharaohs were buried in rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Teachers often use this material to explain why tombs are so useful to historians: they were filled with objects, paintings and writing that have lasted for thousands of years.

The statutory aims also ask children to understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from sources, and Egypt is a good place to practise. Children meet hieroglyphs, the Rosetta Stone that helped scholars read them in the 1820s, papyrus documents, tomb paintings, and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. They learn to ask who made a source, why, and what it cannot tell us. A tomb painting shows how a rich family wanted to be remembered, not necessarily what everyday life was like.

Within the topic, schools choose the details: some focus on Tutankhamun, others on Hatshepsut, Cleopatra, daily life in a village, or the gods. Children are also expected to write informed answers that choose and organise relevant facts, usually as a response to an enquiry question such as “Why was the Nile so important?” Expect timelines, artefact handling, model-making and short pieces of writing rather than long tests.

Words your child will hear

Civilization: A large society with cities, rulers, writing, specialist jobs and shared beliefs.
Pharaoh: The ruler of Egypt, thought to be linked to the gods.
Hieroglyphs: Egyptian picture writing, made up of symbols for sounds and for whole ideas.
Papyrus: A reed that grew by the Nile, made into a paper-like material for writing.
Mummification: Preserving a dead body by drying and wrapping it, so it would last in the afterlife.
Archaeologist: Someone who studies the past by carefully digging up and recording what people left behind.
Source: Anything that gives evidence about the past, such as a building, an object or a piece of writing.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about 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
Pupils should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
Pupils should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A model answer: why was the Nile so important?

Enquiry question: Why was the River Nile so important to Ancient Egypt?

Start with the evidence. A map shows that Egypt is mostly desert, with a narrow green strip of land along the river. Archaeologists have found that towns, farms and temples were nearly all built within that strip.
Sort the information into groups instead of listing it in the order you found it: food (flooding, silt, crops), travel (boats), materials (papyrus, mud for bricks) and beliefs (the river linked to the gods).
Write each group as a point, a piece of evidence and an explanation. Point: the Nile gave Egypt its food. Evidence: the yearly flood left fertile silt. Explanation: this meant farmers could grow more than they needed, so some people could become scribes, priests and builders.
Add a judgement. Decide which reason mattered most and say why. Here, food matters most, because without a surplus there would be no one free to build pyramids or write.
Say what the evidence cannot tell us. Most Egyptian writing was made by officials and priests, so it says more about their lives than about those of ordinary farmers.

The Nile was so important to Ancient Egypt because it provided almost everything that a civilization needs. The yearly flood left fertile silt, so farmers could grow a surplus of food, which meant others could work as scribes, priests and builders. The river was also a road for boats carrying stone and grain, and it gave reeds for papyrus and mud for bricks. The most important reason was food, because without a surplus nobody would have been free to build pyramids or write. However, most of our written evidence was made by officials and priests, so we know less about how ordinary farmers felt about the river.

Common mistakes and how to help

“The pyramids were built by slaves.”

Films and old stories repeat this idea so often that children assume it is established fact.

What helps: Archaeologists have found a town of workers near the Giza pyramids, with bakeries and simple tombs, which suggests organised, fed workers. Show your child how to say “the evidence suggests” instead of “we know”.

Thinking Ancient Egypt was one short period when everything was the same

Textbook pages put pyramids, Tutankhamun and Cleopatra side by side, so they seem to belong together.

What helps: Build a timeline. Cleopatra lived about 2,500 years after the Great Pyramid was built, which is closer in time to us than to the pyramid builders.

“Everyone in Egypt was made into a mummy.”

Mummies are the most famous Egyptian objects, so they seem to stand for everybody.

What helps: Mummification was expensive and mostly for wealthy people and, in later periods, sacred animals. Ask what ordinary families would have had instead, such as a simple grave in the sand.

Believing hieroglyphs are just pictures with one meaning each

The symbols look like little drawings, so it seems that each one is a word.

What helps: Many hieroglyphs stand for sounds, like letters, while others show a whole word or idea. Point out that the Rosetta Stone could only be cracked once scholars realised that many signs stood for sounds.

How to help at home

Make a family timeline. Use a long strip of paper, with about a centimetre for every 50 years. Mark the start of Egyptian civilization, the Great Pyramid, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra and today, and notice how long Egypt lasted.
Be an archaeologist at home. Choose five everyday objects from your home and ask what a future archaeologist would conclude about your family. Then discuss what they would get wrong, which is exactly the problem historians face with tombs.
Try drying with salt. Put a slice of apple in a pile of table salt and leave another slice on a plate, then compare them over several days. It shows why natron dried bodies. Do not eat either slice, and put them in the bin afterwards.
Write your name in hieroglyphs. Borrow a library book with a hieroglyph alphabet and spell your child’s name by sound. Notice that vowels are often missing, and that some sounds need a few symbols.
Ask one enquiry question a day. Pick a picture of a tomb painting or an object and ask, “What does this tell us? What can’t it tell us?” These two questions are the heart of working with sources.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: A significant society in world history