HISTORY AT ST RICHARD'S

Intent

Through the teaching of History at St Richards, we aim for children to see history as a continuous story that has shaped the Britain we live in today, as well as the wider world. We endeavour to ensure that children understand the process of change, the diversity of societies, the complexity of people’s lives, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

We intend for our children to have real life experiences, to learn about history in an active way and to be inspired to ask inquisitive questions. Our curriculum is therefore enriched with events, trips and activities which use primary sources and artefacts. Recent examples include interviewing a friend of the school and WW2 survivor, making Mayan hot chocolate, and creating Roman shields to test soldier formations. Links to Geography and other subjects are also explored.

We want our pupils to leave St Richard’s with a genuine interest and sense of excitement about history and fully equipped to progress to their next stage of learning.  Our aim is for our pupils to develop strong skills of enquiry and achieve a deeper understanding of the world and the role they might play in it.

Implementation

We implement our curriculum so that our children have real life experiences, to learn about history in an active way and to be inspired to ask inquisitive questions. Our curriculum is therefore enriched with events, trips and activities which use primary and secondary sources, and artefacts. Recent examples include interviewing a friend of the school and WW2 survivor, making Mayan hot chocolate, and creating Roman shields to test soldier formations. Links to Geography and other subjects are also explored.

Children in Early Years and KS1 will explore changes over time both within and beyond living memory to enhance their chronological understanding. Children in Year 1 and 2 will study a range of significant historical people, places and event to expand the range and depth of their historical knowledge.

To ensure our children see the history of Britain as a continuous story, children in KS2 follow a progressive curriculum, starting from the Stone Age and moving through time and year groups to the Victorian era.

Planning is based on the National Curriculum and progression is traced through the following key concepts:

Threads running through learning, encourage children to make connections, thereby deepening understanding of recurring themes within our history curriculum. 

The themes that we build on throughout our children’s learning journeys are:

• Power (Government, Monarchy and Democracy)
• Society and Beliefs
• Science and Technology
• Invasion and Settling
• Trade and Economics

Impact

Our teaching of History supports pupils in gaining an understanding of the changes in our locality through time, the richness and diversity of civilisations past, and indeed their own identity. They will have the valuable skills needed to be able to compare and contrast aspects of different time periods, explore the legitimacy of different sources, and use evidence to build up a picture of past events.