Building curious, confident historians: inside Oak’s history curriculum

Oak’s history curriculum, developed with subject experts Pearson for key stages 1-2 and Future Academies Trust for key stages 3-4, has been shaped with one clear aim: to help you inspire your pupils’ curiosity about the past while supporting you with high-quality, adaptable resources.

Thoughtfully sequenced, academically rigorous and rooted in the expertise of the history subject community, it boosts teachers’ confidence with diverse topics and presents pupils with a coherent, engaging journey through the past. Below, we explore what makes Oak’s history curriculum distinctive – across both primary and secondary – and how it can help you deliver powerful historical learning without adding to workload.

Explore the curriculum:

• History key stages 1-2
• History key stage 3 and GCSE AQA
• History key stage 3 and GCSE Edexcel

A curriculum that brings the past into focus

History is rich, complex and often contested. Oak’s curriculum is designed to help pupils grasp this complexity by weaving substantive knowledge (people, places, periods and events) with disciplinary knowledge (how historians study, interpret and communicate about the past).

From introducing early concepts such as king, empire, archaeologist and artefact in KS1, to revisiting and deepening them across later key stages, pupils experience a curriculum that deliberately builds understanding over time. This careful progression ensures that when they later explore topics like the East India Company or competing interpretations of Elizabeth I, they do so using secure prior knowledge.

Purposeful sequencing also supports teachers. Each unit has been designed so pupils can make meaningful links – whether that’s studying the Mughal Empire before exploring British involvement in India, or encountering medieval West Africa before analysing the impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Enquiry questions that drive thinking

At the heart of Oak’s approach are enquiry questions – rigorous, motivating questions that guide pupils’ historical thinking. Our curriculum includes fascinating enquiries like ‘How do we know so much about Viking York?’, ‘What does the Wars of the Roses tell us about 15th-century England? And ‘Why did it take so long for women to get the vote in Britain?’.

Grounded in subject scholarship from teachers and researchers such as Gorman, Riley, Burnham, Brown, Wineburg and Fournier, these enquiries help pupils build knowledge gradually and purposefully. They illuminate how historians ask questions, use evidence and weigh interpretations. The curriculum is structured to reinforce the interplay between substantive and disciplinary knowledge, supported by the work of Wineburg and Fournier. Substantive knowledge is structured in a way that anticipates how it will be built on later, as discussed by Counsell.

Whether pupils are comparing stories about rulers in KS1 or examining why people disagree about the Benin Bronzes in KS2, enquiry questions give lessons a clear intellectual focus and a meaningful sense of direction.

Representation and diversity woven throughout

History is shaped by power – and often, teaching materials reflect that by focusing only on those at the top. Oak deliberately broadens the lens in enquiries about popular revolt in medieval England, the poor in Tudor England and post-war British society.

While male rulers and political leaders remain part of the story, female figures present at the same time are included, and their roles illuminated. The curriculum also represents the presence, agency and contributions of multiple ethnic groups in British history and beyond. This ensures that pupils encounter a richer, more accurate historical narrative – one that reflects the diversity of the past rather than a single version of it.

Interpretations are also foregrounded. Pupils encounter how stories are told and retold – from traditional tales about rulers in KS1 to portrayals of Elizabeth I across time in KS3 – giving them tools to think critically about how the past is understood.

Primary: building foundations through stories, sources and sequencing

Our primary history curriculum helps pupils develop strong foundational knowledge using rich stories, engaging sources and clear progression. Purposeful sequencing and enquiry questions ensure pupils build knowledge in a way that makes sense and sticks. Units and lessons are designed to give you the confidence to teach history, no matter your level of expertise.

Units include:

• Year 1 – Photographs from history: what can they tell us about Britain’s recent past? Pupils explore accessible historical sources by examining photographs from the last 150 years, developing early skills in observation and questioning
• Year 2 – Significant rulers from the past: what can their stories tell us? By studying either the Conflict, conquest and empires or Ruling and religion units, pupils encounter a rich set of stories about diverse rulers from the past, introducing them to various substantive concepts that are consolidated and enriched in KS2 and then in secondary history.
• Year 3 – Ancient Egypt: what stayed the same across 3,000 years? taking a familiar topic and ensuring its delivery is rigorous, this unit invites pupils to assess the extent of change in a variety of areas such as religion across the grand sweep of Ancient Egypt’s history.

Through these units and many more, primary pupils are supported to build secure knowledge while experiencing the joy and richness of the past.

Secondary: breadth, depth and disciplinary rigour

Oak’s KS3 and KS4 curriculum supports a diverse range of content and approaches, combining breadth of study with opportunities for deep disciplinary thinking. Every unit includes textbook-quality materials and supports coverage for Edexcel and AQA exam boards.

Units include:

• Year 7 – Local history: how similar were medieval lives in Norwich?A model of high-quality local history study, using Norwich as an example; uses rich source material to paint a vivid picture of the richly varied lives of medieval Norwich’s denizens.
• Year 8 – Transatlantic Slavery: how were West African societies impacted?Takes a familiar and important topic and shifts the focus from merely describing the Transatlantic Slave Trade to analysing the impact it had on West Africa. Following on from the earlier year 7 unit Medieval West Africa: why was medieval Mali so successful?, they provide a coherent study of a crucial period of West African history and how it relates to European and British developments.
• Year 9 – The Holocaust: what was the Holocaust? Planned according to internationally recognised guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust, leaving teachers assured that they are treating this sensitive statutory topic appropriately.

Across the secondary curriculum, pupils revisit key concepts in increasingly complex ways – developing historical thinking while navigating diverse stories, evidence and interpretations.

Aligned with Curriculum and Assessment Review priorities

You will have seen the government's response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review recommendations to revise the national curriculum and update GCSEs and will be thinking ahead. You can be assured that with the Oak curriculum for history, we already have a strong focus on lots of the areas detailed in the response. For example, the government has made a commitment to improving the programme of study to support pupils to critically appraise historical sources and develop strong substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Our history curriculum is already carefully planned to ensure that pupils’ substantive and disciplinary knowledge is improved in tandem through the use of carefully selected historical enquiries.

We have also ensured that pupils have many opportunities to engage with collections of sources, from the archaeological evidence that informs our understanding of the Shang Dynasty to the material culture of Anglo-Saxon England and what historians can learn from the political cartoons of the Napoleonic era.

The government has also shown a commitment to ensuring that teachers can reflect the innate diversity of British history, including British Black and Asian history. As mentioned above, our curriculum already aims to provide a diverse mirror of the past, and contains various examples of British Black and Asian history, presented in a coherent and non-tokenistic way. Our stories of the Bristol Bus Boycott, Abdul Karim, North African soldiers at Hadrian's Wall and post-war Windrush migration are not just ‘nods’ to a more diverse representation of the past, but are instead important stories that fit within the coherent curriculum that we have put together.

The government has also outlined that ‘all pupils should have a robust understanding of our nation’s history’. From KS1 through to KS4, Oak’s history curriculum is ideally positioned to strengthen your teaching of British history. In it, a clear and coherent narrative of Britain’s history is told, spanning from the Stone Age to Britain’s relationship with the EU in the 21st century. It includes depth studies of key moments in Britain’s medieval past, such as Edward I’s attempts to unify Britain under one crown, alongside broader overview studies of periods such as the Industrial Revolution.

Going forwards, Oak will be working with expert partners to update our resources and provide guidance for what’s changing so you can stay ahead of the changes and plan with confidence. Sign up to get the latest updates.

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Supporting teachers every step of the way

Our resources lighten workload without compromising rigour. The curriculum and lesson materials are designed to be adaptable, thoughtfully structured and ready to use – helping you focus on what you do best: supporting pupils to think like historians.

With clear sequencing, rich stories, carefully chosen sources and meaningful enquiry questions, Oak’s history curriculum helps learners connect threads across time and place – building a deeper and more coherent understanding of the past.

Use this form to let us know if you’re interested to find out more about using our history curriculum, or have questions about how it could work in your school or trust, and we'll be in touch.