What was England like before 1066?

This is a short unit of work that aims to bridge the gap between KS2 and Year 7 history. The KS2 NC states that students could study:

• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
• the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor

Some students will therefore have good understanding of the period and context/ chronological understanding, when they commence KS3 whereas others will have limited knowledge.

Following on from an introduction to historical terms and the skills of an historian, these lessons aim to answer three complex questions:

• Who were the Anglo Saxons?
• What was Anglo Saxon England like?
• Why did the Vikings invade England?

To understand this period, students will need to focus upon the people who came to and left Britain, and the different empires that Britain belonged to from c790. The overarching objectives are to explore the history of invaders and settlers in ‘Britain’, to examine how Britain came to be under Anglo Saxon rule, and to explain the reasons why the Vikings invaded in the 790s.

This will also benefit students when studying Norman England, especially with complex terminology (Witan, Danelaw etc) when teaching the crises of 1066.