This new report by Policy Exchange reviews the state of history teaching in English secondary schools – and finds that history has been one of the major success stories of the last fourteen years of education reform.

Drawing on exclusive new data, including FOI responses from 249 secondary schools about their KS3 curriculums, FOI data from university teacher training providers and data from all three major English exam boards, the report concludes history in schools is in a strong position.

The report reveals:

• 85% of all schools surveyed teach key events in British history such as the Norman Conquest, Magna Carta, the Reformation, Industrial Revolution and the World Wars.
• 99% of surveyed schools teach the slave trade and 89% teach the British Empire – but less than one in five schools teach the Battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and Trafalgar.
• On average schools teach 1 hour and 47 minutes of history a week – but those that offer a 2 year KS3 teach 64 fewer hours than those where KS3 lasts 3 years. Children on free school meals on average receive more history teaching than their peers.
• The curriculum at GCSE and A Level is too narrow and repetitive, with students studying narrow thematic studies like health through time and repeating the Tudors and Nazi Germany at the expense of broader topics.
• 83% of surveyed schools have ‘diversified’ or ‘decolonised their curriculums. This is driven by teacher training courses, 76% of whom run sessions teaching trainees on diversifying history in the classroom.

To remedy a lack of breadth at GCSE, the report recommends a new British history survey paper from 1066-1989 to replace one of the current four papers.

Introducing the report, historian Lord Roberts of Belgravia says ‘Teaching the long narrative arc of British history in a manner that enables young people to orientate themselves, both historically and within our modern society, is only becoming more essential as our nation becomes more diverse and culturally fragmented.’

Rt Hon Lord Blunkett PC FAcSS and Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi, both former Secretaries of State for Education, endorsed the report. The report was also endorsed by Rt Hon Sir Nick Gibb, former Minister of State for Schools; Robert Peal MBE, joint headteacher of the West London Free School, history teacher and editor of the ‘Knowing History’ school textbook series; and Heather Fearn, former Ofsted Curriculum Unit lead and history curriculum specialist.