Intent

Pupils at St. Mary’s Fields will learn from the past as well as about the past. They will develop curiosity about history through memorable, inclusive learning experiences and a curriculum that reflects the diversity of the UK today.  They will establish a secure understanding of the chronology of key events in local, national and world history and make links between different historical periods and other areas of the curriculum. They will begin to appreciate that history is complicated, open to interpretation and doesn’t always have ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers. Pupils will think critically by questioning and challenging sources and interpretations of the past; learning to delve deeper rather than taking information at face value when forming opinions. They will confidently express opinions and ideas.

Implementation  

Lessons are designed to ensure full coverage of the expectations set out in the Early Adopters EYFS Curriculum Framework and the National Curriculum and offer the opportunity for both knowledge and skills progression.  The Curriculum is planned to develop the child’s vocabulary by learning the technical language of history – ensuring the knowing, applying and understanding of these terms. It also ensures that pupils are taught to apply their character education work in their lessons, encouraging them to apply these to their work by developing their understanding of their character muscles.

History knowledge and skills have been organized into topics, headed by key enquiry questions and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group. This is supported through specific topic knowledge organisers, which are provided at the beginning of each topic. At the start of each topic, pupils sequence key events from previously taught areas in order to gain understanding of where the new unit fits in chronologically. Five key themes have been chosen: religion/beliefs, immigration/emigration, structures/settlements, rights and rules, and the life of children (e.g. education, toys, food, clothes). These run through each topic (not all the themes are covered in each topic) to enable pupils to compare and contrast different historical periods that they have learned about more effectively, noting changes over time.  

You can read our History Policy by using the link below to find the policy on our Policies Page