Works in the UK and the US. This version uses UK school terms (Reception, Year 4, secondary school); the US version uses kindergarten, Grade 3 and high school. · US version of this page
Stories from the past and the skills to question them – history from family timelines in Reception to university research, for learners in school, at home and beyond.
This department is planned and ready to build – it needs funding
We have planned what the History Department will teach and how it will work. Building it takes funding, so for now you can read our plan below and use the Classfern pages for history that are already live.
Three words, and how we know them
Caesar's boast has lasted more than two thousand years, but not in his own handwriting. We know it because later writers recorded it. That is the heart of history: asking who told us, when, and why. The History Department is planned around that question, so learners leave with stories they remember and the habit of checking where those stories came from.
Travelling through time, age by age
- Youngest learners (Reception to Year 2): changes within living memory, toys old and new, family timelines and famous people from the past.
- Years 3–9: ancient civilisations, invasions and empires, medieval life and the story of their own country – Britain, with the US alongside – plus local history projects.
- Years 10–13: source analysis, causation and essays on interpretations of modern world history.
- University and adults: research skills, reading historians critically, and family history for the curious.
Timelines and the source detective
Two tools sit at the core of the plan. A zoomable timeline will let learners drag events into order and compare what was happening in different places at the same moment. The “source detective” will show a picture, letter or object and ask: who made this, when, for whom – and can we trust it? Ordering and dating questions will be Marked by Classfern; interpretations come with a marking guide for an adult (Judged by a teacher or parent (rubric)) or a worked example to compare with (Self-assessed).
History you can hold
Objects tell stories too. We plan a handling activity for classes and families: pick something old from a drawer or an attic – a coin, a photograph, a ticket – and work out its story with a guided set of questions. Learners can then write a museum label for it and print it out. Younger children love dating their grandparents' photos; older ones will practise captions that separate fact from guesswork.
Mr Herodotus tells a good tale
Herodotus travelled widely and wrote down what people told him, which made his Histories wonderfully readable and occasionally unreliable – he reported gold-digging ants bigger than foxes, for one thing. Our Mr Herodotus will be a brilliant storyteller who encourages learners to double-check everything he says.
A library worth visiting today
Our flagship Music Department already offers a free library of over 2,000 out-of-copyright pieces – folk songs, carols, piano pieces and songs – that anyone can search by title or composer and play. History hopes to open its own treasure chest one day: maps, letters and pictures from the past, every one properly credited.
Ready when the funding is
Like every new department on Classfern, History is planned and waiting for the money to build it. If you work in a museum, archive or classroom and have a source pupils love, tell us about it.
Already on Classfern for history
Support the Classfern appeal
Every Classfern department is ready on paper, but each one needs funding before we can build it. A gift of any amount helps build Classfern – including new departments like this one – and keeps the free tools free for teachers, families and learners.
Support the Classfern appeal →
Classfern is a small business, not a charity. The support page explains how gifts are used.
Can you help? Teachers and subject experts – tell us
If you teach history or know it well, we would love your ideas, examples and corrections for this department.
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