The History Curriculum at Woolaston Primary

Intent

At Woolaston Primary School, we believe in the importance of children developing a coherent and chronological understanding and appreciation of Britain’s past and that of the wider world to build respect, appreciation, and pride of their countries achievements.

It is our intent that through our broad, creative and challenging curriculum we will develop resilient individuals by encouraging children to, ask and answer historical questions. By drawing upon evidence from a range of primary and secondary sources, children will learn to think critically and gain an understanding of different perspectives.

We believe that a comprehensive teaching of History from the Early Years to the end of KS2 will help children become globally aware of significant events and people. Our curriculum will also enable children to recognise the complexity of people’s lives and how the past has influenced the present. This includes learning about the process of change and celebrating the differences and cultural diversity in our society.

Implementation

At Woolaston Primary School we believe in the importance of developing children’s understanding of history chronologically. Learning will start in the Early years, where children will be introduced to vocabulary related to History as they explore the passing of time, events and people in their own living memory through stories and pictures. Children will also look at how things have changed from when their parents and grandparents were young till the present.

As children move into KS1 they will continue to develop their understanding and vocabulary related to the passing of time and begin to ask questions, about changes within living memory. Children will then study with the support of sources, significant events and individuals beyond living memory such as The Great Fire of London and Neil Armstrong and the moon landing.

In KS2, the curriculum has been developed to allow events to be covered in chronological order to develop children’s understanding of chronology from ancient history in lower KS2 before progressing on to more modern history as they move through the key stage. In year 6, children have the opportunity to embed their understanding of chronology and think critically by studying events that happened concurrently to historical periods they have previously studied.

In both KS1 and KS2, children will also develop their knowledge of their local history by learning about events, people and places that were significant in the past that are local to our school.

Impact

Through high quality History teaching, we aim for our pupils to become young historians who show a love for learning History and have a curiosity to want to learn more about the past. Children will be able to talk with confidence and enthusiasm about the history knowledge they have gained over time using key historical vocabulary. A whole school approach to a timeline display will be developed to allow children to plot new events and periods of History as they are studied to support their understanding of chronology.

Through ongoing assessments and monitoring the work in books, we will monitor children’s progress and attainment in their history knowledge and skills. By the end of KS2, we aim for all children to be able to ask and answer their own questions about the past through historical enquiries as well as understand how the past events have impacted on our lives today.