The Stone Age to the Iron Age

British history at Key Stage 2 starts with the Stone Age. Historians and archaeologists disagree about when exactly the Stone Age started and ended, but an estimated date according to evidence is around 8-10,000 BC until 4000BC. Cheddar Man is the oldest complete human skeleton to be found in Britain, dating from 7150 BC. The Iron Age starts in around 200BC and has continued ever since! This unit therefore covers at minimum 8-10,000 years of history – you cannot possibly cover everything, so you have to pick and choose your enquiry question carefully. The emphasis of the unit of study is upon change which can be a useful guide to help you focus planning.

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  • The potential of primary history

    Article

    In this article Alison Kitson and Michael Riley consider the potential of the primary history curriculum to educate children about climate change and sustainability. They suggest some important principles, and a range of strategies, that could be used to develop a stronger emphasis on environmental history in primary history.

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  • How much has the weather mattered in British history?

    Article

    Tim Lomas has considered the effect that weather has had on shaping Britain. He explores how weather conditions and human actions have affected these islands and the communities living here. He suggests three potential areas of investigation. First, he looks at how weather changes might affect crop failure and so...

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  • Why we need to teach about the history of trees and woodland...

    Article

    Michael Riley highlights the importance of educating children about the history of trees and woodland. He explores the potential of primary history to develop an understanding of our changing relationship with trees. The article shows how a focus on trees and woodland could enhance an existing history study, and suggests...

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  • The Amesbury Archer

    Article

    One of the requirements for the Key Stage 2 history curriculum is that children learn about changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. In some ways this is a challenging period to teach – the evidential record is patchy, it is open to interpretation, and there...

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  • Using ancient monuments to help teach about pre-Roman times in Britain

    Article

    It is inconceivable that anyone teaching ancient Britain has not used some of the famous sites such as Stonehenge, Avebury, Skara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar or Stones of Stenness. They are vital sources of information for this period of history and the teaching usually introduces the element of mystery...

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  • Teaching ‘these islands’ from prehistoric times to 1066

    Article

    The first aim in the National Curriculum indicates that children should: Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider...

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  • Exploring the Rollright Stones as part of your Stone Age to Iron Age study

    Article

    Those teaching the Stone Age to Iron Age will be aware that the range of sources can be seen as rather narrow largely because of the absence of written records. It often means resorting to artefacts and monuments. This article explores one stone site and how it can be used as...

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  • How did a volcano affect life in the Bronze Age?

    Article

    Recent discoveries have greatly altered our view of life in the Bronze Age. Must Farm, for example, was built in the Cambridgeshire Fens around 1000 BCE. Sometime around 1159 BCE (no-one is quite sure when) Hekla, a volcano in Iceland (a country no-one yet knew existed) erupted, throwing millions of...

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  • Scheme of Work: Stone Age to Iron Age

    Article

    Children can be introduced to the idea that people have been living in Britain for a very long time. They can learn about the changes that occurred between the middle Stone Age (Mesolithic Times) to the Iron Age – a period of over 10,000 years! Pupils should be encouraged to...

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  • Recorded webinar: Teaching Prehistory

    Article

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  • Historical fiction: it’s all made up, isn’t it?

    Article

    One of the hardest things for children to develop in history is a sense of period. What was it really like to live in a Stone Age house for example, to get up every morning knowing if you didn’t collect food or hunt something then there would be nothing to...

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  • Turning technology: making life better in Iron Age Britain

    Article

    See also: Stone Age to Iron Age - overview and depth Stone Age to Iron Age - scheme of work Our Iron Age challenge Iron Age Farm - film So who were the people living in Britain in the Iron Age? The Iron Age describes the period in Britain when...

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  • The Bronze Age: what was so special about copper and tin?

    Article

    On first approaching this period it is possible to feel comfortable with the term ‘Bronze Age’ without ever really interrogating what this means. When did this period happen? What do we mean by the term the Bronze Age and was it different or the same around the world? Clearly there...

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  • Rethinking the Stone Age to Bronze Age

    Article

    Every so often archaeologists make a discovery that forces you to sit up and take notice. It might challenge our traditional view of the period, or accepted beliefs about how people lived their everyday lives. One such discovery was made in the 1980s when an amateur archaeologist discovered some flint tools...

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  • The Standing Stone

    Article

    ‘The Standing Stone’ story and the activities around it developed from several different starting-points. One was the requirement in the 2014 National Curriculum for history at Key Stage 2 for children to be taught prehistory, specifically about ‘changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’, with Bronze...

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  • Teaching pre-history outside the classroom

    Article

    From a visit to a local museum or heritage site, to using bushcraft skills to give pupils first-hand experience of what it might have been like to live in ancient times, teaching prehistory outside the classroom can really give this area of the curriculum the wow factor. The inclusion of...

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  • Our Iron Age challenge

    Article

    The University of Chichester’s three-year BA (Hons) Degree for Primary Education and Teaching involves learning how to provide rigorous and creative educational opportunities for children. The course involves one creativity module each year. The final one involves the development of skills and confidence in creating problem-solving. Four of us were...

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  • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bronze Age?

    Article

    It’s September 1992 and in Dover archaeologists from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust are working alongside construction workers when six metres below ground they find some waterlogged planks. Thankfully, an expert in maritime archaeology is on site and he recognises that this could be a lot more than abandoned timber. Uncovering...

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  • TREE-mendous history!

    Article

    Since the nineteenth century there has been a rich heritage of outdoor learning pedagogy in Europe, and today in Scandinavia the open air culture (frulitsliv) permeates Early Years education. In 1993 Bridgewater College nursery nurses returned from a visit to Denmark enthused by the outdoor educational settings and started their own ‘Forest School'. From 1995 the college...

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  • Pull-out Posters: Primary History 69

    Article

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