History National Curriculum

Progression of Knowledge in Chronological Awareness

Subject Key Objective Progression & Development by Year Group

The following is a guide to help you understand your child's progression through school.

All lessons are effectively differentiated to ensure that all children can achieve the objectives set.

Chronological Awareness - EYFS

In Nursery, children will:

• begin to make sense of their own life story and family's history;
• begin to notice changes in things over short periods of time.

In Year R, children will:

• recognise that things happened before they were born;
• begin to organise events using basic chronology.

Chronological Awareness - Year 1

In Year 1, children will:

• know that a timeline shows the order events in the past happened;
• know that we start by looking at ‘now’ on a timeline then look back;
• know that ‘the past’ is events that have already happened;
• know that ‘the present’ is time happening now;
• know that within living memory is 100 years.

Chronological Awareness - Year 2

In Year 2, children will:

• know a decade is ten years;
• know that beyond living memory is more than 100 years ago;
• know that events in history may last different amounts of time;
• know that ‘generation’ means a group of people that are born in the same period.

Chronological Awareness - Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4)

In LKS2, children will:

• know that history is divided into periods of history, e.g., ancient times, Middle Ages and modern;
• know that we can use dates to work out the interval between periods of time and the duration of historical events or periods;
• know that BC means before Christ and is used to show years before the year 0;
• know that AD means Anna Domini and can be used to show years from the year 1AD;
• know that prehistory is the period of time before written methods wand stretches until the Roman invasion in AD43;
• know that prehistory is divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age;
• know that the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age periods are named after the materials that were commonly used to make tools.

Chronological Awareness - Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6)

In UKS2, children will:

• understand the term “century” and how dating by centuries works. (e.g. the 1500s are known as the 16th century);
• know relevant dates and relevant terms for the period and period labels e.g.Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and Maya.