History

Being a Historian is….

• being curious about and inspired by how different societies of people lived in the past, comparing this to our modern world.
• understanding chronology, who lived when, events that happened and the impact this had locally, nationally and globally.
• being able to enquire knowledge and ask questions about the past by evaluating historical sources.

The General Principles of our curriculum are that children:

• Meet Jesus through all aspects of their work. It is our intention that the children will encounter Jesus through elements of their history work. We hope to encourage them to look at the wonderful and complex world in which we live through new eyes and with greater understanding of how things work, how things change and their role in its preservation. Through the teaching of History, our school values are embedded encouraging children to question and to foster/experience God’s awe and wonder asking ‘why’, whilst showing respect when understanding people’s lives in the past.
• Experience the challenge and enjoyment of learning. As you walk around our school, look at our work and talk to our children, you will see them enjoying learning experiences that demonstrate the love our children have for history. We are a school that nurtures motivated and curious children; who learn how people lived in the past, comparing this to our modern world. Children understand the past so that they can make thoughtful observations and judgements about it. The subject of history encourages comparison, questioning, hypothesising and analysis through practical research of secondary sources and educational visits where primary evidence can be seen and learnt about. Our school sits in the heart of a historical town and county allowing a number of opportunities to teach a child about the history of their local area, from EYFS and up to Year 6. The teaching of History takes a visual, auditory and kinaesthetic approach to learning (VAK) ensuring that it is accessible to all learners. Children find out about different periods in History through our progressive/sequenced/structured History curriculum, which is inspiring and memorable for all, as it is practical and relevant: using video, artefacts, visits and links with the local community. Coming together to build knowledge and skills through lessons, trips and discussion fosters a sense of belonging.
• Learn within a coherent and progressive framework. Following a time of somewhat fragmented planning, that lacked fluency and clear progression, we have created our own long term and medium -term planning with the theme of ‘chronology’ running through it. The framework is progressive, chronological and sequenced. It is powerful and transferable. It is intended to support a child to build up a sense of knowledge overtime and to use previous knowledge to access future knowledge. Our curriculum is planned in such a way that as a child moves through our school, their historical knowledge and understanding will deepen as it would have been built on the foundations laid in the previous years. Planning provides the class teachers with three units of work for the academic year which will be taught in the terms of Advent 1, Lent 1 and Pentecost 1, with Geography being taught in the alternative terms. Within each unit, the class teacher is provided with six individual lesson objectives for the six lessons that they will teach. Each unit of work begins with placing that particular time on a timeline and comparing it to events/time in history from the child’s previous learning. The child’s individual timeline then builds up throughout their history learning, unit to unit and school year to school year. The planning allows opportunities for repetition and reinforcement of key learning/sticky knowledge between year groups and from EYFS to Key Stage One and from Key Stage One to Key Stage Two. This ensures that working memory is not overloaded but we give pupils and teachers time to ‘dive deeper’ and ‘linger longer’ within a period of history. This supports a child to ‘remember more and know more’ securing this knowledge in their long-term memory. We have also structured the framework to allow staff to use ‘Rosenshine’ principles in their teaching alongside their own personal experiences, activities and resources to augment this planning, as we do not follow a scheme. As a school we are working towards small components of learning being taught to reach a bigger composite at the end of a unit of work.
• See clear links between different aspects of their learning. History is not a stand-alone subject. Links are made to other areas of the curriculum, particularly Geography and Science, Religious Education, Art and Design Technology as well as a child’s outdoor learning in the WOW area..
• Understand the purpose and value of their learning and see its relevance to their past, present and future. We aim to equip our pupils with the knowledge, understanding and enquiry skills to understand the past, the present and the future.
• Explore the breadth and depth of the national curriculum. The intention is that the learning goes beyond that of the National Curriculum and that areas of learning are planned to teach the history of our local area here in Grantham and beyond, stretching out to our country, England and the wider world, encompassing the countries that some of our children originate from. We believe that teaching History in this way is important in broadening children’s horizons and developing life skills, empowering a generation of life-long learners in secondary school and beyond.

Year 4-Advent 1

Ancient Greece

Yr4 History MTP Ancient Greece

Year 4-Lent 1

Yr4 History MTP Romans.

Year 4-Pentecost 1

Anglo-Saxons and the Scots (Celts)

Yr4 History MTP Anglo Saxons

Year 5-Advent 1

Yr5 History MTP Viking And Anglo Saxon Struggle

Year 5-Lent 1

Industrial Revolution

Yr5 History MTP Industrial Revolution

Year 5-Pentecost 1

A local history study- Isaac Newton/Woolsthorpe Manor

Yr5 History A Local Study Isaac Newton Woolsthorpe Manor

Year 6-Advent 1

Suffragettes

Emmiline Pankhurst

Advent 1 Yr6 History Sufragettes

Year 6-Lent 1

WWII

(including local study)

Lent 1 Yr6 History WWII

Year 6-Pentecost 1

The Civil Rights Movement

Dr Martin Luther King and Paul Stephenson

Pentecost 1 Yr6 History Civil Rights Movement