History
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 are members of the Historical Association, please follow the link to take a look yourself!
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.
Early Years - Understanding the World
Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society, such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
3-4 Years
- Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history
Reception
- Talk about members of their immediate family and community.
- Name and describe people who are familiar to them.
- Comment on images of familiar situations in the past.
- Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
Key Stage 1
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.
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.
Key Stage 2
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.