Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Rye Oak School is in its second year of ‘Fresh Start’ status and there are many issues in the school, including poorly motivated children and behavioural problems. Many of the children in the school were disengaged from their learning and were not used to being challenged, either in terms of their behaviour or to think for themselves. It is in this context that, in my role as Key Stage 2 Team Leader, I had the opportunity to write a new curriculum for history for KS2 starting in September 2006. This opportunity filled me with excitement. As a class teacher I had long wanted to get away from the constraints of teaching ‘The Tudors’ or ‘The Victorians’