In 2005, in a "Teaching History" article entitled, 'A need to know', (EJ1069467) Nicolas Kinloch built an argument for teaching the history of Islamic civilisations to all pupils. Afia Chaudhry returns to this theme, reflecting deeply on the needs of her own students -- Muslim and non-Muslim alike -- within a diverse south London community. As she clearly demonstrates, the need to know -- and to build shared knowledge and understandings -- remains as pressing as ever. Her article first explains the deep-rooted concerns that prompted her to create a new scheme of work on Islamic civilisations, before outlining the sources from which she took inspiration and presenting a short, informal evaluation of the scheme's impact.