“We learn about how the world has changed over time and how this has shaped life today.”
Intent
At Arlecdon Primary School, we provide an engaging, broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills.
We make use of our rich local history to build chronological understanding to develop concepts of change and causation within their units of work and where they fit into our understanding of history today. Our children critically examine primary and secondary sources of evidence looking for patterns, differences and trends. They will ask and answer questions about the past and significant events as well as recognising abstract terms which interlink throughout the historic periods.
History Curriculum Overview
Skills and Knowledge
Pupils will be exposed to a range of skills a “Historian” uses in each topic that they study. Over time they will become more confident and independent in using these skills. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach the children to investigate these past events and, by so doing, develop the skills of sequencing, enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.
Our pupils in EYFS follow the curriculum as set out in Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum as part of understanding the world. We encourage the children begin making sense of the world and their community through storytelling and sequencing activities. Through opportunities where they explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment around them, pupils are encouraged to ask and answer questions about the world around them. Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. Laying a secure foundation for the development of historical skills in later key stages.
The sequence in KS1 focuses on young children developing a sense of time, place and change. It begins with children studying Changes within living memory to develop an understanding of difference over time within concrete experiences of their lives. This chronological knowledge is foundational to the understanding of change over time. Pupils start to ask and answer questions about the past by looking at written sources, pictures and objects and explore similarities and differences between the present and the past. We will develop their skills of historical enquiry by helping them to understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented. Pupils study the Lives of significant
individuals, focusing on David Attenborough and Mary Anning. Chronology and place in time steers the understanding of the context in which these significant individuals lived.
During Key Stage Two, we will teach our pupils to develop a chronologically secure understanding of British, local and world history. They will develop the skills to make connections, contrasts and trends over time and to develop the appropriate use of historical vocabulary. We will encourage the children to ask questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. Our children will be taught to recognise that the past is represented by a wide variety of sources and we aim to help them to understand the reliability of these sources and the significance of them in our own lives today. Our children study the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Vikings and the Mayan Civilisation. Pupils will also consider the significance of the arrival of the Empire Windrush as a turning point in British history.
Enrichment
Our teaching of history is enriched with assemblies, thematic days and with visits to places of historical significance, both locally and further afield, including the local war memorial and Tullie House in KS2.
