At St George’s, we recognise history as being a medium through which pupils can understand, enjoy and appreciate the world in which we live. We believe that the teaching of fun, engaging lessons that bring history to life is seminal in developing children to enjoy learning and thus become life-long learners.
We want our children to discover meaningful links and connections, past and present, to our locality and the wider world. We want our children to have a good understanding of local and wider historically significant events, knowledge of sources and how to find out about the past and a developed sense of chronology, drawing meaning by making connections to the present day.
Our curriculum aims to develop independence in learning. In addition to key substantive historical knowledge, we want our historians to be resourceful and reflective in their approach; understanding how to find out about the past, analyse and evaluate different sources of evidence and draw meaningful connections to how history impacts on our lives today.
Early Years Foundation Stage
We teach history in EYFS as an integral part of the enquiry work covered during the year. We relate the historical side of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELG’s) which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged 3 to 5. History makes a significant contribution to developing a child’s understanding of the world (UTW) through activities such as talking about things they have done in the past and discussing the meaning of vocabulary such as ‘new’ and ‘old’. Children are regularly asked to recall what they have done at the weekend or over the half-term holidays and, during some educational trips, they look at new and old buildings and transport – such as during a trip to the Haynes Motor Museum.
The aims of being a Historian are to:
- 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 History – key stages 1 and 2 2 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
The key question at the beginning of our enquiry work promotes deeper thinking and often acts as the catalyst to independent enquiry work. Key history milestones are carefully sequenced to drive each enquiry with a historical focus. They are carefully considered to ensure clear development and understanding of the subject area, build knowledge and enable them to begin formulating their own opinions, ultimately developing a response to the posed question or challenge set.