History

“We learn today about yesterday to try to make a better tomorrow”.

Historical understanding fires children’s curiosity and imagination about who we are, where we have come from, where we have lived and where we might be going next. It connects Britain’s past with the present and the future and helps children make sense of our place in the world’s history.

Over time, children need to build an understanding of history as a construct. They need to know that the story of the past has been and is told differently by different people. They need to grasp that history is created from the evidence that remains, and that sometimes this evidence is fragmentary or contradictory so we have to weight it and test it for reliability. Historians have to find ways of making sense of this incomplete picture. They also have to make judgments about the accuracy of evidence from the past. All is not what it seems. This sense of mystery and possibility is what makes history exciting and engaging.

In our history planning we aim to provide the pupils with controversy, significance or change. An ingredient to hypothesise over or make a judgment about. As they progress through the school we want to give them opportunities for historical thinking on a local, British and worldwide scale. In each unit of work we have an overarching key question, that makes it clear what the key skill/concept is that is being addressed, followed by smaller sub-questions. We ensure that key enquiry skills and concepts are mapped our across the school allowing pupils to build on skills as they go through the school. Most importantly we give time for students to properly interrogate evidence and raise new questions.