History

Intent

‘We are not makers of history. We are made by history.’

- Martin Luther King Jr

At Queen Eleanor’s CofE Junior school, pupils are encouraged to see themselves as history detectives. Through skills based lessons and projects, we aim to develop children’s curiosity by investigating our immediate ancestry and comparing it to civilisations around the world.

Our mission is to instil a fascination for the past and a recognition for how it impacts our modern lives. The questioning and research of humanities past takes our pupils on a journey to discovering the history of our species and its effect on our civilisations, cultures and behaviours.

Using high quality resources, including books, artefacts, maps, photographs, first-hand accounts, secondary recounts, ICT, fieldwork and trips, we provide opportunities for children to understand the past, appreciate the present and prepare for the future.

Implementation

Using a termly topic based approach, in which history knowledge and skills are linked to the topic, we implement national curriculum objectives and skills, provide opportunities for research and investigation, using primary and secondary sources, and plan field trips and outdoor learning to provide all pupils with a foundation as historians.

The study of history includes;

• Developing a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.

• Noting connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.

• Regularly addressing and sometimes devising historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

• Construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.

• Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

To ensure these areas of our history curriculum are covered, as a school, we discussed key historical themes that re-occur in each year group. These themes are: community, civilisation, power and legacy – these are known as our golden threads and help teachers to plan purposeful lessons whilst ensuring knowledge is retained.

Pupils at Queen Eleanor’s are taught about:

• Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
• The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain.
• Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons.
• The Vikings
• The Anglo-Saxons
• Local history study of Guildford (linked to The Anglo-Saxons)
• Crime and punishment (a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066).
• Ancient Egypt (the achievements of the earliest civilisations – an overview of where and when the first civilisations appeared and a depth study)
• Ancient Greece (a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world)
• Mayan civilisation (a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history)

History Curriculum Overview

Impact

History is essential to our understanding of ourselves and our communities. It is vital that we have an ability to investigate our past, compare and contrast time periods and civilisations, consider change and evolution over time, make predictions about the future and order events chronologically, whilst looking at cause and effect.
A high quality history education provides a curiosity and a responsibility towards our community, civilisation and species that will last a lifetime, ensuring a sense of global citizenship and a feeling of belonging and community.
During the children’s time at Queen Eleanor’s, their history skills are developed and embedded using a variety of sources to support this. We use local loan boxes, themed days and trips to ensure this and make history an enjoyable subject for all. We base our lessons around a key overarching question, which by the end of the unit, the children form their response to, allowing both teachers and children to assess their understanding.  

Attached below are the skills of progression for History.

History skills of progression