THE FOUNDATION CURRICULUM: HISTORY

INTENT

History at St John Fisher is led by Ms Syeda

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 exploring historical models. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values as well as give them the ability to question the past critically.

“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, French 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, pupils will develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people throughout their time at St John Fisher. By the end of KS2, pupils are taught how to effectively research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view. Pupils will find and consider evidence, in order to reach their own conclusions. They will study history with a comparative approach and be able to evaluate the events of the past with a sense of confidence.

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 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.

Pupils should be taught about:

• changes within living memory – where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life (Year 1 Exploring Time);
• events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally (Year 2 City Study - The Great Fire of London); 
• the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements, some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods (Year 1 Exploring Place - Explorers) ;
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality (Year 2 City Study - St Albans).

Key Stage 2

During Key Stage 2 pupils 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.

Pupils will be taught about:

• changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age (Year 3 - Ancient Britain);

• the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain (Year 5 - Roman Britain);

• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots (Year 5 - Invaders);

• a local history study (Year 5 - Roman Britain);

• a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066 (Year 5 - Crime and Punishment, Year 6 - Impact of War);

• the achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared and a depth study of  Ancient Egypt (Year 4 - Ancient Egypt);
• Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world (Year 4 - Ancient Greece);
• a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history – one study chosen from: early Islamic civilization, including a study of Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan civilization c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300 (Year 6 - The Americas Mayan Civilization)