“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.”

The Primary National Curriculum Framework 2014

Intent

It is important that children gain a knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, in order to help them understand the complexity of people’s lives, the processes of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Implementation

The history curriculum at Windermere is taught discretely in KS1 and KS2, but also in cross-curricular sessions. It is designed to develop key skills progressively and is delivered in a chronological order, so that the children understand where each topic fits into world history. By the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day with links to the local area of St Albans. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Mayans. In addition, they learn about and compare significant historical figures such as Christopher Columbus, Neil Armstrong and Thomas Barnardo but also developments which have had a significant impact on British or World history.

At Windermere, resources are carefully considered at each stage of our curriculum. Each class has a timeline where they can make reference to all previous history learning, enabling to put periods of history into chronological context. History word banks throughout school focus on key knowledge and vocabulary to exemplify the terminology used throughout the teaching of history and enable pupils to make links across the wider curriculum. Knowledge organisers ensure that children have individual access to key knowledge, language and meanings for each topic covered. Children have access to a wide variety of subject specific fiction and non-fiction books, in all lessons as well as history. For each topic artefacts are readily available for children to explore and investigate to enhance the children’s historical knowledge, understanding and skills. Historical trips are also planned and where possible local points of interest are visited to reinforce local knowledge.