Teaching Anglo Saxons at KS2

Outstanding KS2 history lessons on Anglo-Saxon Britain

All lessons below follow the outstanding Anglo Saxon lesson planner you can find in the medium-term planning section

To ensure that you follow the National Curriculum requirements, and more importantly to deepen pupils’ real understanding of this topic, it is important to plan it with the Vikings in mind. Indeed, there is a case for combining the two to make one longer topic. The reasons for this are clear. You can’t teach the Anglo-Saxons for long without mentioning the Vikings. For example, Alfred the Great was considered great partly because of the way he saw off the Viking threat at a critical time in Britain’s history. So our approach has been to have 4 enquiries relating exclusively to the Anglo-Saxons, and then a  couple which look at their inter-relationship with the Vikings.

Resist the temptation to get so bogged down in detail that pupils lose sight of the overview. That is why activities such as those in KQ4 are so important. Always remember: deep vibrant learning trumps curriculum content coverage every time.

In terms of the concepts being taught, there is ample opportunity to look at causation in terms of why the different invaders came to our shore, change and continuity as the battle for control of these land ebbed and flowed, and interpretations: was Alfred really great and were the Dark Ages in Anglo-Saxon Britain really that dark?