History

INTENT

At St John Fisher, we encourage pupils to see the diversity of human experience and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society by looking back at historical models. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values.

“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”

 Theodore Roosevelt

History with geography will be interwoven and serve as the basis of a thematic approach which will influence lessons and projects covered in art, design technology and music. Historical vocabulary will be revisited wherever possible to embed knowledge and concepts further.

Progression in history throughout EYFS, KS1 and KS2 are based on pupils attaining historical knowledge, historical concepts and skills to enable historical enquiry. We aim to stimulate the pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world.

Through KS1 and KS2, we encourage a comparative and evaluative approach about how societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. Pupils develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people throughout their time at St John Fisher. Pupils find and consider evidence, in order to reach their own conclusions. To do this successfully by the end of KS2, pupils are taught how to effectively research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view.

IMPLEMENTATION

Early Years

History is taught in Reception and children are given the opportunity to find out about past and present events in their own lives, and those of their families and other people they know. This makes a significant contribution to developing a child’s understanding of the world, through a variety of child-initiated and adult-led activities. Pupils will learn how the past is different from the present.

Key Stage 1

During Key Stage 1, pupils learn about people’s lives and lifestyles. They learn about significant men, women, children and events from the recent and more distant past in Britain and the wider world. They listen and respond to stories and use sources of information to develop skills that help with historical enquiry.

Key Stage 2

During Key Stage 2 pupils learn about change and continuity in their own area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history in a variety of ways, for example from political, economic, social, religious and cultural perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways. We encourage pupils to critically evaluate historical sources for elements of bias by the end of KS2.

Enrichment

Pupils have access in class to multimedia resources, such as 3D models, and virtual tours of famous monuments and museums. Trips and workshops are organised across the school to ensure children are engaging with the content taught.

Impact

By the time children at St. John Fisher leave our school they will have:

• A passion for history and engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.

• A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.

• To think critically about history and evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views.

• To think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions.

• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.