The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:
- 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
- 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 History curriculum develops the priorities for pupils at Wolsingham Primary School in the following ways:
Basic skills – The History curriculum allows plenty of opportunities for children to develop their reading skills with the use of primary and secondary sources, allowing children to develop their understanding of the past through independent reading. Writing skills are developed in written explanations and answering of questions linked to historical concepts. Finally, opportunities to use Mathematical skills are encouraged in terms of developing understanding of the chronology of dates.
Resilience and Perseverance – Children are encouraged to build up their understanding about history, using their own lines of enquiry as they progress through school. It develops the key skills of perseverance, understanding what needs to be done to be able to reach their own conclusions and ensuring that they follow that line of enquiry to the end.
Social Awareness – One of the major aspects of history is to understand the roots of where we have come from as a nation. This helps build up social awareness of how people lived and still do live as well as developing an understanding of culture and other differences in society (e.g. role of wealth, gender, immigration etc).
Knowledge – Children are expected to develop their understanding and knowledge through the use of carefully scaffolded questions and sources of information which, by Upper Key Stage 2, allows children to then be able to develop their own lines of enquiry to find an answer to a problem. This is not only an important transferable skill to other subjects but can be an important life skill that builds up their own independence and promotes a natural curiosity of the world.
History in the Early Years
A historian in the early years will show an interest in their own lives and the lives of people familiar to them. They will talk about events and people in their lives who are important to them, sharing special times and events from home with friends and staff. They will talk about similarities and differences between themselves and others, among families, communities and traditions. In small world play and role play, they will imitate everyday actions and events from their family life and cultural background. They will notice different features in their environment, commenting and asking questions about the world in which they live and the natural world. Developing an understanding of why things happen and how things work. A lot of learning in the early years takes place through purposeful play, both indoors and outdoors. Towards the end of Reception children will be learning skills to equip them for their future learning and later success in Year 1.
