Teaching the 3 Queens at KS1

This topic builds on young pupils’ intrinsic interest in kings and queens as well as offering great opportunities to build progression into the learning of history by enabling Y2 pupils to move from ‘similarity and difference’ to look at change and also, importantly, continuity through time.

The choice of Elizabeth I , Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II not only focuses on three of the longest-lived monarchs , it also gives scope to look at three contrasting periods of history, none of  which the features in the new National Curriculum. It also helps pupils to see how strong rulers women were at a times when their work is less well documented than men’s.

By teaching this topic  you are strengthening pupils’ chronological understanding at KS, helping pupils compare the recent with the more distant and very distant past. No attempt is made to look at each reign in depth, but rather to focus on clear differences between the character of the monarchs, their personal lives and features of  life during the three reigns, without getting bogged down in detail which pupils will cover in KS2.