History

National Curriculum Purpose of Study

A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils 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.

National Curriculum Aims

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed History – key stages 1 and 2 
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

History at Eastwick

The history curriculum at Eastwick meets the requirements of the National Curriculum the school’s Curriculum Ethos. Therefore, it prepares children to be ‘Ready for Everything’ in their futures in terms of: 

• Success in the next stage of their education and beyond: by providing knowledge and understanding of the past and some significant events throughout history; by providing a secure understanding of chronology; by providing children with the ability to draw inferences and make their own conclusions based on what they have seen and studied; by developing disciplinary knowledge that will equip them to further develop their historical understanding in the next stage of their education.
• Their ability to navigate life’s personal Challenge: by inspiring inquiry and curiosity, developing a love of asking questions and wanting to know more; by developing children’s ability to listen, reflect, form opinions, empathise, agree and disagree on historical matters.
• Understanding their place in communities at global, national and local levels and seize the Opportunity of the future: by learning and demonstrating the school values in how they collaborate in their learning, and how they discuss and form opinions about historical events; by learning how to use historical thinking to understand not only the past, but the current ever-changing world and the interconnectedness between countries.

Curriculum Content

• In Reception, pupils are taught elements of history that prepare them for the Year 1 curriculum.
•  Our curriculum in Years 1-6 has been developed by our teachers, according to the objectives and guidance offered by the National Curriculum. Teachers develop resources which meet these objectives in an effective way for the children.
•  Knowledge is built progressively throughout Key Stage 1 and 2. Pupils revisit the key knowledge themes (see below) on a cyclical basis.  Each time a key knowledge theme is revisited, it is covered with greater complexity, therefore increasing children’s breadth and depth of knowledge.  Prior knowledge is recalled and utilised so that pupils build on previous foundations.    
•  We make use of the school’s grounds, the local area and school trips (for example to Hampton Court Palace) to advance children’s historical knowledge. We also use themed days, often including workshops run by outside experts, to develop children’s historical understanding in an inspiring way.

Key Knowledge Themes:

Chronology

Technology

Empire

Civilisation

Trade

Religion

Invasion

Social Class

Monarchy

Revolution

Units taught (Years 1-6):