Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy that study of the (a) First World War and (b) Second World War is made mandatory in the history curriculum.

The requirements for the mandatory history curriculum in maintained schools in England are available online at:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study.

A copy of this document is also available in the House Library.

Maintained schools must teach 11-14 year-olds the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world from 1901 to the present day. In addition to studying the Holocaust, this can include the First World War and the Peace Settlement, and the Second World War and the wartime leadership of Winston Churchill.