We'd like the children to come to the understanding that the society we live in today has been formed and shaped by the people that have come before us – and from this that society in the future will be shaped by ours and their actions now.
History for the very young concentrates on what they, and their close friends and relatives, can remember. Young children need to develop their own sense of chronology before they can consider the abstract idea of people living a long time ago.
For many ‘the olden days’ includes Vikings, Tudors, Victorians and when their parents were young! Having explored the recent past, they then consider times and events beyond living memory in this country before also looking at what was happening at similar times in other parts of the world.