Humanities Overview

Our curriculums for History and Geography are highly ambitious. The content exceeds the scope of the national curriculum ensuring pupils can develop a rich knowledge of the subjects. We offer a highly rigorous curriculum which places significant emphasis on disciplinary, as well as substantive content. The content of the curriculum is extremely carefully sequenced, within and across the subjects, so that pupils use their knowledge gained from earlier material to enable them to access content later in their journey. This helps pupils see connections within and across the two subjects.

In studying History as a discipline, pupils will:

• Use the concepts of continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, in order to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses;
• Practise the methods of historical enquiry, understand how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

Mrs Bradford

History Co-ordinator

History Overview

Within History, we aim for pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. By inspiring the children through our chosen units of work, children are able to engage and show curiosity about the past. We encourage children to become historians and to develop their skills in chronology, interpretation of history, questioning, thinking critically, and evaluating sources. It is also encouraged that children are able to make links and evaluate the impact history has had on life today. Through our teaching of History children are supported in understanding the lives of others, the process and impact of change, the diversity of societies, as well as their own identity and changes within their lives. area. The purpose of this is for children to be aware of local history around them and understand the importance of where they come from.

Early Years

History in Early Years focuses on children looking at past and present events in their own lives and understanding similarities and differences to those they are familiar with. These aspects link with the specific area of learning, Understanding the World, People and Communities strand. Throughout Nursery and Reception children will begin to build foundations of understanding history through their communication and language skills, asking questions, recalling, retelling and using language and vocabulary related to time. They will also build relationships, showing understanding and empathy when discussing similarities and differences. Early maths skills also link to their understanding when counting, sequencing, classifying, grouping, ordering and creating patterns. We believe it is vital that before children are able to understand other people and events they need a good understanding of their own loves, routines and experiences, and be able to engage, interact and compare with others.

Key Stage 1

Children in Year 1 will start deepening their historical understanding with their first enquiry question 'What toys did my Grandparents play with as a child?'. This will allow children to make the transition from their Early Years learning to a time of period beyond their own understanding. As children deepen their chronological awareness they are then able to look at other aspects of history beyond their living memory with a focus on historical events and individuals. These include the Great Fire of London, Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale and the Monarchy.

Key Stage 2

As the children develop their understanding of historical events and individuals during Key Stage 1 the focus then moves to periods of history within the teachings of Key Stage 2. 

From Year 3 children will follow the Opening Worlds programme exploring various periods of History including Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire and Vikings. Children will work through the knowledge-rich curriculum making links to previous lessons and units, along with their learning in Geography. Our curriculum and teaching in the Humanities foster the knowledge, skills and dispositions for pupils to:

• Thrive through informed curiosity about the world;
• View human challenges, quests and achievements through the lens of the long traditions that have shaped them;
• Think critically about how to change the world for the common good;
• Gain the language and concepts to notice, analyse and question how power works in society, and how inequality or suffering arises;
• Understand and value the diverse experiences and contributions of others who may be very different from themselves;
• Enrich their own sense of identity as they look across time, space and culture and see many positive versions of themselves;
• Understand the power of learned communities working collaboratively to seek truth in their claims about the world;
• Gain the concepts which give them the tools for precise thought and rigorous argument with which to describe, explain and change the world;
• Guild strong standards of truth about the conditions under which valid claims can be made about the world, society, culture and belief, on multiple scales;
• Appreciate and participate in the arts – music, art and literature – through richly diverse artistic outputs within the many sources studied, properly understood in their cultural, temporal and geographical contexts and providing richly informed stimulus for pupils’ own creativity.

Subject Coverage

Whole School Events

As a school we take part in various events to allow for children to share in a common theme of learning. Each November all classes are given an enquiry question linked to Remembrance to deepen their understanding of what it means to remember, the importance of remembrance and impact of war. At the end of the week we come together as a school to celebrate and share our learning in a whole school liturgy. 

Useful Links

Here are some useful websites and apps your child might enjoying using to support them in their historical knowledge:

• https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/teacher-category/history/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/
• https://www.historyforkids.net/
• Historical calendar
• Queen Beasts
• World History for Kids
• History Quiz for Kids