The nearly complete history of almost everything

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

The Nearly Complete History Of Almost Everything outlines the chronology of various aspects of our lives, and gives a flavour of the enormity at first glanceof ‘teaching chronology'. Topics, which are not tied to a particular era, are already taught in Key Stage One - Year One studies ‘Homes' and ‘Toys', and children dip their toes into historical vocabulary by using such words as modern, new, old, before and after; transfer their Science learning by considering materials; and begin to develop their powers of observation and description when handling artefacts. Thereafter, chronology has tended to be taught ‘en passant' alongside the exciting historical episodes which are so important for lighting pupils' collective fire, historical curiosity and passion...