History

HISTORY

Intent 

History at our school intends to give all children a broad and balance view of the History of Britain and other societies from around the world. In this, children will develop a well-rounded knowledge of the past and its events, with the intention to improve children’s cultural capital, knowledge and skills, understanding of the world around them and their own heritage, the culture of our society, such as traditions, languages, buildings, that were created in the past and still have historical importance

History at Victoria road aims to spark imagination, curiosity and teach children to ask questions about the past. At Victoria road primary school, we have designed our history curriculum with the intent that our children will: 

 

• Possess a secure understanding of the chronology of Britain from 3 million years ago onwards and other important periods of History from around the world
• To discover links and connections to the History they learn and the wider community and how history has an impact on the present 
• Further their knowledge and explanations of change and continuity over time with regards to the history of the Britain and other societies from around the world
• Enquire into Historical themed questions 
• Form their own opinions and interpretation of the past 
• Gather and interpret evidence from a range of sources such as, artefacts, pictures, trips, internet, to answer a variety of questions. 
• Differentiate between fact and opinion and explain how interpretations in History may differ  

• Draw on similarities and differences within given time frames and across previously taught History 
• To actively learn the vocabulary of historical terms to allow the children to develop a deeper understanding of word meaning 

 

Implementation 

The curriculum is led and overseen by the History lead. Our History lead regularly monitors, evaluates and reviews the work by children thus celebrating the good practice. This allows the curriculum to be evolved and improved further. 

The teaching, learning and sequencing of our History curriculum follows: 

 

• Weekly sessions in two terms over the year, mainly term 1 and term 3   
• Will ensure coverage and progression in all skills relating to History. 
• In term 3 Teachers will revisit Historical skills that need further consolidation and to use new knowledge to enforce prior skills. 
• In KS1, the Historical skills will focus on the world around them and their living memory of History before moving to events that go beyond living history. 
• In KS2, the British History curriculum is set out in chronological order to allow children to reference the previous events in time and to refer to this prior learning year-on-year and within the year. 
• Each history unit is taught with an overarching key question. The subsequent lessons will build upon each other to allow the children to fully answer the question at the end of the unit. 
• The progression of skills is set out in order to build and develop the following: 

• Chronological Understanding 

• Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 
• Connection and Historical Links 
• Interpretations of History 
• Historical Enquiry 

• Lessons will develop long term memory by allowing for repetition of learning within the year and year on year.  
• Historical vocabulary is taught within the unit and reinforced throughout the year.  
• Our History curriculum helps to provide a link to their lives and explore their heritage and cultural capital.  

 

Impact so far:- 

• Children are becoming increasingly critical and analytical within their thinking. Making more informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. 
• Children are becoming increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world that they currently live in. 
• Theyalso are starting to have a further understanding of History on a local, national and global level.
• Children are developing developing enquiryskills to pursue their own interests within a topic and further questioning. 

• Where applicable, children will have encountered or participated in high-quality visits/visitors to further appreciate the impact of History. 
• Children are starting to  retain prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning

Next steps 

History next steps :  

• • Continue to develop small step learning in history to ensure depth of history is being taught across all year groups  
  • Continue to ensure that word aware strategies are used to develop historical language.  
  • Continue to work with other schools in the trust to share and adopt best practise  
  • To further develop the use of timelines in classrooms  

History Rationale 

Early Years

During early year children develop an understanding of the time before they were alive, based on living history. Through role play children explore objects from present and past understanding that some things have changed over time, beginning to consider why, and some things have not changed.

Early historical vocabulary is discretely taught where appropriate and explained and then regularly referred to in direct teaching and continuous provision. 

Year 1

In year 1, children extend their breadth of understanding to change in national life over time and then begin to consider impact of those changes on their life today. They study shops and houses, their change over time and explore the local area from 1950’s to present day. Children will begin to put shops and houses on to a simple timeline using vocabulary to show the passing of time. Children will develop their use of aerial photos and maps of the locality to compare changes over time.  

After looking at the changes in the local area, the children will further develop this knowledge by looking at significant people, places and events in their local area. Children will begin to study Joesph Verdin, John Brunner and Mond, their industries and understand the significance of the River Weaver in their choice of location. They will learn that industries were built near rivers to allow easy access to water, for waste disposal and for ease of transporting materials. Also learning what they did for the local area including their industries and events significant to Northwich. They will see that they built the local infirmary, workhouse, local parks, provided leisure activities and the reasons why. Children will begin to develop their historical questioning skills by asking and answering questions. 

Year 2

In Year 2 the children develop an increasing sense of chronology, moving to time periods beyond living memory and developing their vocabulary across the year. The children start to place key events and people in to chronological order and begin to make some links to eras studied.

They study three significant national events, the Great Fire of London, Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot and Remembrance Dayunderstanding when these happened relative to today and to each other and their impact on people at the time. The children use visits, artefacts/pictures of artefacts, diaries, newspapers, guest speakers and research to help develop their understanding of life beyond their living memory. The children look at key people of these times and use their lives to compare to their own. 

Building on from this the children then explore lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Over the term the children look at Bruegel, Lowry and Banksy and compare aspects of life in these periods of time studied and compare their life and their achievements. This will develop further on from Year 1, where they have compared changes over time. The children will any key dates on to their ongoing timeline. 

Year 3

In Year 3 the children develop an increasing sense of chronology, moving a long way into the past to look at a focus of key changes in Britain from the Stone Age to Iron Age. As they begin Key Stage 2 they are also beginning to understand that different things are happening in different parts of the world at the same time to further develop their historical understanding. 

Children move on to develop an understanding of archaeology and its place in helping us find out more about the past. This understanding is further deepened with a workshop session from pre historic Archaeologist. They begin to develop their understanding how the past can be interpreted in different ways and use their own and others evidence to answer historically valid questions. 

In looking at the Stone Age, artefacts are used to help children daily life for people at the time. Linking to geography the children will look at the types of settlements in early Britain and look at why people chose to settle there, comparing this with land use patterns of today. They look at shelters and housing and how they changed between the periods linking back their work from shops and houses from Year 1. They look at the impact of the progress the Ages brought to people at the time.

The children move to look more internationally looking at the distant past. They begin by identifying key ancient civilizations – Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt and The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China and consider different things in different parts of the world at the same time.

After doing so they move on to an in depth study of Ancient Egypt and look at the achievements of the Ancient Egyptians. The children make valid observations, including that all ancient civilisations were built next to rivers. Thus further developing their skills from Year 1, where they would have noted local industries were built next to rivers. Children understand why and how pyramids were constructed, looking at the beliefs of the Egyptians and the impact of religion in building.The children will look at Howard Carter and his significance to the discovery of ancient Egyptian civilization which builds upon their knowledge of significant people from Year 2.  

Year 4

In Year 4 children take a more focused look at the chronology of history from the Greeks to the Romans, using their chronology to place key eras and events in order. The children will further develop their questioning skills with a focus on change, cause, similarity and difference and significance. 

During the study of Ancient Greece the children will look at Greek life, achievements and their influence on the Western world with a focus on laws and justice, PE and architecture. The children will look at trade links within this time and how it differed later on when looking at Roman trade links.  

When studying the Romans the children will narrow their focus to looking at Roman impact on Britain, comparing to the influences the Greeks had on Britain and how the Romans changed this. They will look at Roman invasion, roads, settlements, architecture and maths and compare this with the influences from the Greeks. Invasion is considered helps children to understand why people would want to invade others and the impact on society. The children will study Boudicca and her significance to the Roman Empire, building on their study of significant people from Year 2.

 

Year 5

In year 5 children will use and apply understanding of chronology, developing and further creating their own time lines with their growing knowledge and critically appraising others based on their knowledge of chronology. They will focus on ancient civilisations expansion and dissolution of empires. 

Building on from the Romans in Year 4, the children will study Britain’s settlement by Anglo Saxons and the Scots. The children will further develop their questioning skills about change and cause over time. Looking at the stark difference of settlements between Roman era and Anglo Saxon times. Their prior knowledge of invasion and why it occurred will develop further from Year 4 as they look at invasion from Roman Britain to Viking times and the reasons why. The children will continue to develop their understanding of significant people from Year 2 and study Alfred the Great and his impact.  They will further develop their chronological knowledge by studying Anglo Saxon and Viking struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the confessor. 

 

 

In the subsequent term Year 5 will study the Mayan Civilisation and contrast with Britain at the time of 900AD, allowing the children to make contrasts and analyse trends and pose their own historically valid questions using their developed knowledge. The children will look at what the Maya people achieved and how it influenced the western world by looking at maths, writing, architecture and trade links. This develops further on from their study of the Greeks and Romans in Year 4. They will do this by critically analysing evidence and use their own judgements to make a decision on which society was more advanced in 900 A.D. Britain or the Maya. 

 

Year 6 

In year 6 the children will study Wars through time from 1066 to present day including a local history study. They will use their prior knowledge to gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge in to different contexts. The children will make connections and create their own structured accounts to analyse. 

The children will study the United Kingdom’s chronological past from 1066 to present day, following on from Edward the Confessor studied in Year 5.  The children will use this information to create their own scaled timeline applying their mathematical knowledge.  They will begin to understand civil wars and why the English civil war happened, linking to their prior knowledge of invasions from Year 4 and 5. Following on from this the children will look at the role the UK took in WW1 and WW2, examining why they started, how they affected people and the impact it had on the UK. This study of WW2 will link to the local history study of how WW2 impacted Northwich and how the end of WW2 was celebrated in the area. 

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