History

History Overview and Skills & Progression

National Curriculum 2014: a high-quality history education 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.

History is all around us. The study of history ignites children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, culture and local community have developed over time, children understand how the past influences the present.

History enables children to develop a context for their growing sense of identity and a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. What they learn through history can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. Our intent, when teaching history, is to support and stimulate the children’s natural curiosity and creativity, centred on evidence, facts and imagination, in order for them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding.

Reading and literature

High quality texts are used in our teaching to develop children’s understanding of time, place and period. Our class readers add a narrative to the children's learning which improves and enriches their vocabulary about that history topic. By using texts children can understand the "bigger picture" of history and to unpick complex ideas. Our history areas display fiction and non-fictions texts which link to the relevant history topic and allow children to explore and deepen their knowledge further.

History Learning for All

Our history curriculum is carefully designed and sequenced across the year groups from EYFS to Year 6 to identify the key concepts and the big ideas for the children to understand and remember. We encourage the children to be curious, active and independent learners and to think critically about the evidence and resources they interact with. We also take advantage of our close proximity to Sevenoaks and our beautiful surroundings to learn about the local history of our town and community. Our teaching is enquiry-based so that we always start with a question to focus the learning and one which requires a breadth of knowledge to answer. A stimulus is used to spark the children's curiosity and imagination, such as resources, artefacts, texts, pictures, videos and music.

Chronology

We use timelines to help the children to build a story of the past – both inside and outside the classroom! Used repeatedly with meaningful examples, this allows them to develop a mental timeline and link their prior knowledge of different time periods.

Enrichment Opportunities

In order to strengthen the children's understanding of their history topic further, there are a wealth of enrichment opportunities arranged for them, such as school trips, local walks and visitors to our school.

Useful Resources

BBC Bitesize - there are a wide variety of short videos and information to explore across the Primary History curriculum.

Primary History teaching resources

BBC Bitesize - KS2 History learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers organised by topic.

KS2 History

British Museum - This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies.

https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com