In March 2026 the British government published its policy paper on community cohesion: Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom. It makes a very strong case for the study of history as it offers a shared, critical and inclusive understanding of the past. The paper stresses that the study of history is not merely an intellectual pursuit but a civic obligation, essential to the maintenance of a reflective, resilient and democratic society.
History helps us understand the world we live in. The skills learnt through the study of the past such as finding and assessing evidence, weighing different positions and analyses, and constructing an argument based on the evidence, are vital to life, especially in our age of social and digital media. In our classrooms pupils are acquiring tools that will help them to navigate this complex and challenging information landscape, both now
