Vikings (KS2)
Who were the Vikings, and where did they come from? From the first raids at Lindisfarne in AD 793 to permanent settlement and the Danelaw, this topic covers far more than longships and invasion. Here’s what the curriculum expects, and the lessons and resources to help you teach it.
What children learn about the Vikings at KS2
What the national curriculum expects
The Vikings appear in the KS2 history curriculum as part of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England, up to the time of Edward the Confessor and his death in 1066. The curriculum’s own examples point to Viking raids and invasion, resistance by Alfred the Great and Athelstan, further Viking invasions and Danegeld, Anglo-Saxon laws and justice, and the events of 1066.
Key knowledge and concepts
Within this topic, children build knowledge across Viking life, raids and settlement in Britain:
The first raids
The landing at Lindisfarne in AD 793, and what the raids meant for Britain
Viking longships
How they were built, and how they made raiding and trade possible
Viking gods and beliefs
The Norse gods, and the stories and poems built around them
Everyday life
Homes, food, work and family in Viking Britain
Raiders and traders
Why the Vikings travelled, and what they took and traded
Resistance and Danegeld
Anglo-Saxon resistance under Alfred the Great and Athelstan
The Danelaw
Where the Vikings settled, and how Britain was divided
1066 and the Norman invasion
The end of Anglo-Saxon and Viking England
Where this topic sits within KS2
The National Curriculum doesn’t set a year group for the Vikings. It sits within the wider KS2 history sequence, taught alongside or just after the Anglo-Saxons, building towards 1066. Many schools place it in Year 4.
How to access this topic
The Vikings don’t sit on their own in the curriculum. The Cornerstones history curriculum is fully sequenced from EYFS through Year 1 to Year 6, so you can see what comes before, what follows and how the whole picture fits together. We’ve done the thinking, so your planning time goes into teaching, not sequencing.
Full curriculum
Subject curriculum
Quick Teach Individual lessons and resources for supplementing what you already teach.
Ready to bring the wider curriculum to life?
See how the full Cornerstones History Curriculum sequences topics like this one across every year group.