History Vision

Intent

We want to promote in our students a lifelong curiosity and interest in the past. We hope that children will develop an understanding of the chronology of major events and civilisations in both British and world history. They will use their contextual knowledge to establish why things happened and understand how people lived, to ultimately discover what led to the emergence of modern society and culture.

We wish to bring history to life through a range of engaging topics, exciting activities and immersive school trips. By the end of their time at The Lanes, children should feel comfortable analysing the validity of a range of historical sources and be able to present their findings in several different ways. We hope to encourage children to open lines of enquiry independently, in areas of history that interest them.

Implementation

Children will usually study two units of history per year group. Each unit will be covered across an entire half term period. In KS1, Children will begin to identify and recall some details from the past using sources such as pictures, stories, eye-witness accounts, photos, artefacts and visits to local buildings. In KS2, children will begin to give plausible reasons for how and why aspects of the past have been represented and interpreted in different ways. They will also embark on trips further afield, including York and Castleton, to help further their understanding. Students are encouraged to open lines of enquiry about the past, before eventually identifying and using appropriate sources of information to help answer their questions. Eventually, they will be able to evaluate the usefulness and accuracy of different sources of evidence, presenting their findings in a balanced way.

We believe in a cross-curricular approach, which means that the history topic will often drive other subjects such as literacy and art. This allows the students to be fully immersed in the topic and often produces excellent results. Current history topics across the school include: Historical places and people in the local community, changes within and beyond living memory, dinosaurs, the Stone Age, Ancient Greece, the Shang Dynasty, Roman Britain, Vikings and Saxons, Britain in 1940 and the Maya. These topics are reviewed regularly.

Year group teachers are encouraged to hold ‘Wow’ days at the start of each topic which are designed to engage the children. These showcase the art, beliefs and culture of the historical period and present the children with opportunities for being creative. We also supplement this with visits to school from experts on the topic, as well as hiring artefacts from the Nottingham University Museum.

The teaching of History really lends itself to a cross-curricular approach. Historical periods are often chosen as the focus for each half term to encouraging greater coverage and to maximise the number of opportunities for children to learn about the time period in different ways. The frequent incorporation of numerous key concepts encourages the children to make more links between subjects. Children are able to considerably widen their vocabulary with the terminology associated with historical research and this becomes incorporated within English lessons that focus on the time period being studied. Teachers are well versed in the topic they are teaching with the use of knowledge planners and an understanding of the key skills required to deliver the lessons. The curriculum leads have organised the sequence of topics to ensure a growing understanding of the order of significant historical cultures and events. The children are able to continuously build on prior knowledge because each new topic is introduced as part of a chronological sequence.

Impact

Children will have a good understanding of the chronology of British and world history. They will understand why things happened and the chain of events that led to the development of the modern world. They will be enthusiastic about history and feel confident in their ability to analyse different sources of information. Our approach will enable them to develop their critical thinking skills, which will allow them the access the secondary curriculum and excel on their academic journey.

History Knowledge Planner

Principles and Rationale

The History Curriculum across school is split into five key strands. These are:
 

Timeline: The dates/periods in which things happened and how they relate to other periods that the children already know about. 
 

People and Places: The names of key people and places and the role they played. 

Events: Key events and their impact on that period of history and/or the present day. 

Experience: An understanding of what it was like to live in a period of time or through a significant event, with a focus on the following key areas:

• Religion and Belief
• The structure of society and what life was like for different groups of people
• Innovation and technology
• Settlement
• Warfare
• Everyday experiences
• How traces of the past can be seen today, either physically or ideologically. 

Vocabulary: Key vocabulary related to this and other time periods.

The children build on their knowledge in each of the key strands during each year of school, although different history topics within a year may have different focuses. The children are given opportunities to relate their knowledge of the time period/event studied with others that they know about by, for example, knowing which things were happening at the same time or by comparing and contrasting different ways of life.

Key knowledge is organised into these strands. This does not represent the entirety of the knowledge covered during a topic, but rather the knowledge most children should have by the end and will therefore be focused on across a series of lessons.