History
Our curriculum is designed to give pupils the key knowledge and skills they need for future learning and for adult life. It provides a strong foundation, enabling every child to grow in confidence, develop a love of learning, and be fully prepared for the next stage of their education. The curriculum is purposely adapted to help pupils with SEND access core knowledge and skills.
We do this by:
-
Creating a solid understanding of the past that enables pupils to place events, people, and changes in context and to be able to explain how the past has impacted on our lives today.
-
Encouraging children to think critically, ask perceptive questions, and develop informed perspectives.
-
Using engaging stories, artefacts, visits, and hands-on experiences to bring history to life.
-
Ensuring progression in historical knowledge, concepts, and enquiry skills from EYFS through to Year 6.
In EYFS, children begin to explore the concept of history through their own personal experiences and those of their families. They learn through their own play, exploration and natural curiosity and inquisitiveness. Our skilled practitioners ensure that every opportunity is given to develop these key skills through role play, well chosen stories, well established daily routines alongside questions and conversation as they interact with the children.
In Key Stage 1, children build on the foundational understanding developed in the Early Years by beginning to explore history beyond their own personal experiences. Through carefully chosen topics, pupils are introduced to significant individuals, events, and places in both national and international contexts. Children learn through a broad range of engaging experiences, including storytelling, drama, discussion, and the use of historical artefacts and sources. Our curriculum encourages their natural curiosity and growing sense of time, helping them to develop an understanding of the past and present, and begin to place events in a chronological framework. Our teachers provide rich opportunities to ask and answer questions, compare aspects of life in different periods, and understand how the past has shaped the world today.
In Key Stage 2, pupils deepen their historical understanding by exploring a broad range of local, British, and world history. Building on the curiosity and foundational knowledge developed in KS1, children begin to explore the complexity of historical events, make connections across periods, and gain a stronger sense of chronology. Through carefully sequenced topics, pupils learn about significant civilisations, key historical figures, and major changes over time. They are encouraged to think critically, ask thoughtful questions, and use a variety of historical sources to explore the past from different perspectives. Lessons are enriched through discussion, drama, written tasks, source analysis, and visits or virtual experiences, all of which bring history to life and make learning meaningful.
