Primary history through the secondary school lens

Trying to explain what pupils at primary school should know and understand about history to help their progress at secondary school is an extremely tricky question to answer (so thanks Jon!). Ultimately there are likely to be a range of possibilities and what is presented here is very much a personal perspective.

At the most basic level it is important that young people enjoy the subject. Enjoyment may derive from the teacher's enthusiasm, the type of task pupils are asked to do or the intrinsic nature of the topic. A recent report published by the QCA (2005) explored KS3 pupils' perceptions of history; the study gathered responses from 1700 pupils via questionnaires and a further 160 were interviewed. As part of the study pupils were asked about their primary school experiences. Just over half said they enjoyed history at primary school. Clearly this could be seen as a positive or negative, depending on your disposition, but the vast majority of pupils were adamant that they found history at secondary school more enjoyable. When asked what they liked about history at primary school, pupils were able to recall ‘special occasions' such as trips or ‘living history' days, whilst the Egyptians proved the most memorable topic. Whilst there is very good practice in many schools, Ofsted reports show that in too many schools the work is undemanding and so pupils do not make consistent progress.