Studying Romans in state school primary

[BeccaBean]

Can anyone tell me which year your child learnt about the Romans? Thanks!

Year 3

DD1- never
Dd2 -Yr3

Yr1

Year 3. It's in the KS2 curriculum and many schools teach the civilisations in chronological order.

DS1 never, he did the Greeks. DS2 in yr 3.

DD's class just did it last term, she's in Year 4

Thanks everyone! Was hoping that the curriculum had a specific year for this (like all the kids we know in Year 2 at different schools did Florence Nightingale) but seems like that's not the case. Will see if DD's Y2 class teacher knows what year our school teaches this.

Many schools have mixed year classes so topics like that rotate so several years will learn it at the same time... hence no fixed year nationally.

Due to moving schools my elder DD did the same topic 3 times (Yr1, Yr3, and Yr4)

KS2 curriculum so can be anytime between Y3 and Y6.

Exactly this.

Does your school not have curriculum maps on their website? There should be a section for curriculum, and if you dig around you should find the maps telling you what each year group does each term.

Mine is doing Romans now in Y5.

Check the school website, there should be curriculum plans available. Generally it's year 3 but does depend on the school!

Year 3 for us

My childrens school never did a roman topic but they did have a roman day in year 4

Yes that was when it was the Labour curriculum.

Labour produced teaching materials (QCA docs) that delivered all the curriculum learning objectives. QCA docs weren't mandatory but most schools followed them, particularly for history, science and geography as they were there and there were so many supporting resources made for them by companies eg museums, educational materials, the bbc.

Tories tore it all up and just gave a curriculum (history is really detailed, art is not at all) but did not specify what years.

Unfortunately it is not actually appropriate to teach history in chronological order (I don't think and as my archaeologist friend says) but most schools didn't know what the hell to do so have done so. Some of the topics are extremely abstract (early man) and others more relatable for young minds.

For the most part staff in individual have had to write detailed plans to deliver content which has been enormously taxing. Or scholar but a scheme in, which is expensive, One of the reasons why teachers went on strike.

You also get the issue with first schools and middle schools where topics are missed or repeated as they've not collaborated properly.

<puts soap box away>

It's down for Year 4 on DD school curriculum. With Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in Year 3.

We are outside the UK and use the Galore Park books, which absolutely do teach in chronological order. It’s worked fine for us. There is a case for keeping things simple sometimes; chronological order makes progression very easy to manage and prevent gaps and repetition, and stuff gets reviewed bit-by-bit as they go along anyway. I’m very wary of anyone stating flatly that “XYZ is not appropriate.”

I’m very wary of anyone stating flatly that “XYZ is not appropriate.”

I'm not just stating it. I studied history at university and have taught for 20+ years .

Some historical concepts are challenging for children, especially those with SEND and autism; I teach in an MLD school. We really struggle to teach many aspects of history. And my friend who was an archaeologist, now primary teacher, thoroughly agreed.

There are also many cross curricular links, especially with literacy, that can be made where the literacy topic suits a particular year group and isn't chronological.

Primary 4.

There's no specific year group. I teach Year 2 and I've never taught Florence Nightingale for example (we chose Neil Armstrong and L S Lowry as our 'significant people' instead).

The NC doesn't actually state specific year groups for the KS2 units but your schools should have their long term plans on their website.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/239035/PRIMARYYnationalcurriculumm-_History.pdf

As an aside I do wish more schools would try a bit harder to make their curriculum more inclusive, Florence Nightingale was undoubtably a wonderful person, and I love the idea of her having a pet owl, but Mary Seacole was also around doing very similar things at the same time . And there is no excuse that it is hard to source materials about her, yes it was hard to find good materials when I first knew about her and taught about her , but that was nearly thirty years ago, it’s a piece of cake now!

I'd be very surprised if any schools are not teaching Mary Seacole. It's a huge priority to make our curriculum inclusive and representative and this is considered within each subject and year group.

Oh and we do Romans in Y4 now - used to be Y3.