St Mary's

Developing Historians for the future

Our children will develop coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, inspiring their curiosity to know more about the past. Children will ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History will help our children 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. 

 

Our history curriculum is underpinned by the 4 key historical concepts:

Historical interpretation

Chronological understanding

Historical understanding

Knowledge and understanding of people, events and changes in the past.

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught as part of a unit, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. We recognise the importance for children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences through hands-on, practical activities. We ensure this through educational visits and cross-curricular opportunities through subjects such as Art and DT and regular exposure to and analysis of historical sources and artefacts.

We also provide regular opportunities to compare and link historical time periods and allow time for disciplinary learning to teach our children how to think like historians, to question, debate and share our knowledge on local, national and international history as they progress through school.