Leader: Mr Lumsdon (*SLE)

INTENT
Our history curriculum will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to 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.

We aim to ensure that all pupils:

• Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

IMPLEMENTATION
The objectives of history teaching in our school are based on the requirements of the National Curriculum programmes of study for EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

We follow the aims of the Early Learning Goals for our EYFS curriculum and we have followed advice from the Historical Association when creating our KS1 and KS2 curriculum.

Each topic has been designed specifically to fit with our schools vision, values and local context.

In terms of our EYFS history curriculum, we focus on the section of the ELG that is ‘Understanding the World,’ :

We use these objectives to inform the activities we deliver and offer to our EYFS children.

Our curriculum is split into key strands, based on the wording of the NC, that form the foundations of our planning:

Knowledge    

Themes across history

Historical concepts    

Historical enquiry   

Chronological understanding

You will find these in the planning documents, to demonstrate to teachers which subject-specific skills are applicable for each lesson. You will also find them as a sticker at the beginning of each lesson, so that children can recognise which skills they are using and become more fluent in understanding each.

In KS1, we aim to create a link between their EYFS learning as well as preparing them for more complex topics in KS2. We want the children to develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.

Where appropriate, we also utilise our membership to Mozaik3D. This allows us to bring abstract concepts and learning to life:

https://www.mozaweb.com/lexikon.php?cmd=extra_full&extraid=262356