Before 1066 and all that; Ensuring effective transition between Key Stage 2 and 3 History

This e-cpd unit has been funded as part of a Heritage Lottery Fund project " Exploring Britain`s Viking Heritage with East Anglian Schools" run by Civilizations in Contact , an educational charity linked to the University of Cambridge. (The trust aims to promote greater understanding between today's world cultures by demonstrating how those cultures and civilizations interconnected and interacted in the past.)

During the summer term of 2014 this project involved more than 300 Key Stage 2 Primary schoolchildren being immersed in Britain's Viking history in three ways: through art, drama and dance in their classrooms; through role play at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village near Bury St Edmunds, and through a visit to the British Museum's world class exhibition, "Vikings: Life and Legend". As a project legacy this resource has been written by Andrew Wrenn, former Cambridgeshire Humanities Advisor to support teachers of primary and secondary history wishing to improve the transition between Key Stage 2 and 3.

The introduction of the new National Curriculum is leading to much change in the primary history curriculum where there is also considerable official pressure to ensure that pupils are "secondary ready". These materials have been written to model how secondary history teachers or primary teachers of history (or probably both, working in a partnership of equals) can plan for high expectations in Year 5 and 6, so that those year groups are better prepared for the demands of the subject in Year 7. The resource takes a sample focus on the Vikings showing how to plan a depth study with rigorous enquiry questions moving towards a substantive and motivational outcome. It has been written to include lesson plans and resources for immediate teaching in primary schools by either primary teachers or secondary history teachers working with primary pupils. The scheme of work is set within guidance about how it could be used in CPD by individual teachers or preferably by groups of teachers working together.

The following publications among others have been important for reference in compiling this unit;

Vikings: Life and Legend by Gareth Williams and Peter Pentz (ISBN 9780714123370) - the scholarly catalogue of the 2014 British Museum exhibition.

Given to the Ground. A Viking mass grave on Ridgeway Hill, Weymouth by Louise Loe, Angela Boyle, Helen Webb and David Score. (ISBN 9780900341588) This Oxford Archaeology publication gives a detailed and forensic account of a 2009 excavation which uncovered the remains of a mass grave.