Teaching History in Birmingham in Years 1–4

Quick answer: Teach history in Years 1–4 in Birmingham by starting with work and objects pupils can picture: the smith, the baker, the weaver, and the canal boats that carried goods. Build timeline skills alongside, then compare past and present. The Old Trades & Crafts unit covers old trades and how they changed over time.

Birmingham has long been called the city of a thousand trades, and that phrase is a ready-made history topic for young pupils. Children can understand a blacksmith or a baker long before they can understand an economy. Add the city's 35 miles of canals, which Birmingham City Council says is more than Venice, and you have a local study that pupils can walk along.

The National Curriculum in England asks KS1 pupils to study changes within living memory, events beyond living memory and significant places in their own locality. In Years 3 and 4 pupils begin a local history study and themes in British history. Trades and inventions fit both key stages.

What history should pupils learn in Years 1–4?

Across these four years, pupils move from simple comparisons of then and now to their first proper sense of chronology and evidence.

• Years 1–2: compare everyday life and work in the past with today, using objects, pictures and stories
• Years 1–2: use words such as past, present, old, new, before, after, long ago
• Years 1–2: learn about significant places and events in the local area
• Years 3–4: place events on a timeline and use dates and terms such as century and decade
• Years 3–4: ask and answer questions about change, cause and similarity
• Years 3–4: use a range of sources, including maps, photographs and objects, in a local history study

How can I sequence a unit on trades and inventions?

1. Then and now: pupils sort pictures of old and modern tools and explain their choices.
2. The smith: pupils read a short passage and label a smith's tools using the word bank.
3. The baker and the weaver: pupils compare the two jobs in a simple table.
4. Trades changing over time: pupils match each old trade to a modern job.
5. Build a timeline: pupils order five inventions from the wheel to the computer.
6. Local study: pupils look at a map of Birmingham's canals and discuss what boats carried.
7. Project: pupils make a poster or model of one trade and present it to the class.
8. Review: pupils write or say three things that have changed and one that has stayed the same.

The Old Trades & Crafts: from Smith to Baker unit supports steps 1 to 4 with three ready-to-teach units: Crafts in the past, The smith, baker & weaver, and Trades changing over time. Each has a step-by-step lesson plan, a differentiated worksheet with a reading passage and word bank, a project or primary-source activity, an answer key and slides.

How can I make history local in Birmingham?

The canals are the easiest way in. A short walk along a towpath, or a map study if a trip is not possible, lets pupils see bridges, locks and old buildings that once served the canal trade. Ask them to record three things they see and one question they would like answered.

Back in class, connect what they saw to the trades unit. Which workers would have needed the canal? What might a boat have carried to a smith or away from a workshop? Our Birmingham teaching resources page has more ideas for linking local history to other subjects.

What do young pupils find hard about history?

• Scale of time: to a six-year-old, 50 years ago and 500 years ago can feel the same.
• Assuming people in the past were less clever because they had fewer machines.
• Mixing up the order of inventions, such as putting the telephone before electricity.
• Treating a picture of the past as a photograph rather than someone's drawing.

For the first point, use a washing line timeline across the classroom. Peg on the pupils' birth years, a grandparent's childhood, and then older events. Seeing the gap stretch across the room helps more than any number.

How do I support EAL pupils and mixed attainment?

Birmingham is one of England's youngest cities, with about 40% of residents under 25, and many classrooms include pupils learning English as an additional language. Use the word banks with pictures, and let pupils point, sort and label before they write.

Offer the differentiated worksheets so all pupils read about the same trade at their own level. Confident writers can add a paragraph from the worker's point of view; others can complete sentence frames such as "The smith used a ___ to ___."

Which other resources support primary history?

For the inventions strand, the Inventions That Changed the World unit moves through the wheel, the printing press, and electricity, telephone and computer, with lesson plans, reading worksheets and projects. To build chronology skills, the Timelines & Measuring Time unit covers ordering time, reading and building a timeline, and how people measure time. The elementary history collection has more primary units.

History in Birmingham: at a glance

Frequently asked questions

What history topics suit Year 1 and Year 2 in Birmingham?

Topics about everyday life and work suit Years 1 and 2 best. Old trades, toys, homes and transport let pupils compare past and present with objects and pictures. A local study of the canals meets the KS1 requirement to learn about significant places in the locality.

Is a Grades 1–4 history unit right for my year group?

It covers a wide range on purpose. US Grades 1–4 are roughly UK Years 2–5, and the differentiated worksheets let you pitch the same topic for a younger or older class. Use the simpler worksheets in Year 1 and the fuller reading in Years 3 and 4.

How do I teach chronology to young pupils?

Start with the pupils' own lives, then stretch outwards. Order photos from a pupil's baby years to now, then add a parent's and grandparent's childhood, and only then older events. A physical timeline across the classroom makes the distances between dates visible.

How can I teach Birmingham's canals without a trip?

Use maps, photographs and a short video tour. Pupils can trace a canal route on a map, spot locks and bridges in photos, and list what boats might have carried. If a walk becomes possible later, the classroom study gives pupils questions to take with them.

Related reading

• Birmingham teaching resources: selected units and subjects