History
Intent
History aims to provide a broad and balanced curriculum with topics informed by the national curriculum and making links to the children's local area. We aim to help children understand the rich history of their local area, the UK and the world. Children will explore and understand their place in the world and will build upon prior knowledge learnt in previous year groups. We teach history topics in blocks to ensure depth and progression across each year group. At the beginning of each new topic, we assess the children's prior knowledge and create timelines looking at relevant key events and where the period of history fits in time. We use knowledge mats for each topic and share these with the children so that they have an understanding of their learning and how it relates to them. Where appropriate we ensure that cross curricular outcomes are planned. We also ensure we acknowledge important historical events across the whole school such as remembrance day and black history month.
We aim to build knowledge and understanding through 4 key areas:
- Chronological understanding
- Historical understanding
- Interpretations of history
- Historical enquiry
Our history curriculum aims to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past, understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
Implementation
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
History is taught as part of Understanding the World in EYFS. Primarily taught through a broad range of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, we foster their understanding of their place in time. We begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history through photographs and carpet time sessions where we talk about our own history and our family. We introduce timelines through photograph displays of our time in Early Years where children enjoy talking about what special activities they have done with their friends throughout the year. When reading a range of texts, we take the opportunity to compare and contrast aspects of the stories to our own lives and promote discussion around changes over time.
KS1
Pupils are taught about:
- changes within living memory
- events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]
- the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements
- significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
KS2
Pupils are taught about:
- local history studies.
- changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age .
- the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain.
- Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots.
- the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor.
- the contrast between Mayan civilization and British history.
- a significant turning point in British history, which is taught through the study of the Industrial Revolution.
- the achievements of the earliest civilizations, which is taught through the study of Ancient Egypt.
- Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements, and their influence on the western world.
- an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066, which is taught through crime and punishment.
Impact
EYFS
When children leave the Early Years, they have an understanding of their personal history.
KS1
Pupils develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. Pupils understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
KS2
Pupils continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history. They note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. Pupils regularly address and devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance and understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.