‘Empire’ is an historical concept with a rather imprecise range of meanings. Students need to be able to track their changing understanding of what an empire actually is. Into our workschemes for Years 7 to 13 we have therefore introduced a number of enquiry questions that simultaneously build knowledge about different empires and require exploration of the idea of empire. These ‘empire’ enquiry questions are just one strand – but a very important one – in our overall schemes of work. The relevant questions and our rationale for each one are reproduced here.