History
What are the aims of teaching history?
The National Curriculum for England describes the purpose of history as:
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.
How is the National Curriculum covered in history?
During Key Stage 1 pupils learn about people’s lives and lifestyles. They find out about significant men, women, children and events from the recent and more distant past, including those from both Britain and the wider world. They listen and respond to stories and use sources of information to help them ask and answer questions.
This knowledge is further developed in Key Stage 2. Pupils learn about change and continuity in their own local area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history in a variety of ways, for example from political, economic, technological and scientific, social, religious and cultural perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in overview, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways.
What skills are covered during lessons?
At Bramley St. Peter’s we aim to inspire and captivate our pupils as they learn skills through carefully planned topics that are creative and well-integrated into the rest of our curriculum. Whether history is delivered as a stand alone subject or through other subjects such as English an maths, we strive to give our children stimulating experiences that allow them to develop their history skills. Plenty of trips and historical artefacts are made available for the children to develop their understanding of key historical events.
Children throughout our school are encouraged to learn and develop their historical skills rather than just learning the ‘facts’. We focus on allowing children to discover the past through their own enquiry, and have a key emphasis on ensuring progression of their skills as they move up through school.
How is progression achieved?
We have a long term plan that details the skill progression expected across the year groups. This ensures that skills are developed for each child over time.