This paper takes four premises for granted: (i) that a coherent, motivating, demanding historical education is essential for all citizens in today’s society. This is not a luxury, it is a burning necessity in the interests of social inclusion, human rights and the preservation of democracy; (ii) that the present curricular and funding arrangements for the humane subjects in state secondary schools are wholly inadequate in terms of curriculum time, subject-specific CPD and encouragement of specialist subject teaching – and that this makes it particularly hard to teach the bottom 50% of the ability range well; (iii) that post-14, the problem is acute, with headteachers...