History
Our History Lead is Miss Gilmore.
At Sunny Bank, we believe that children need to have a greater understanding of the world in which they live in. History inspires children’s curiosity to know more about the past. In order to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, we aim to offer a high-quality history education that equips pupils with the skills to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
History helps children to develop their understanding of the complexity of people’s lives, the challenges of their time, the diversities of societies and relationships between different groups as well as their own identity and the process of change.
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
- 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.
Please see below for our Long Term Plan. From time to time, this plan may change as teachers adapt the learning to suit the needs of the children.
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| SB_History Curriculum.pdf | Download |
Our History curriculum aims to excite the children and allow them to develop their own knowledge and skills as historians. History is used as a topic focus or a driver for the half term (as is Geography) but we also aim to ensure that it is integrated into other areas of the curriculum and the basic skills are taught throughout the year through cross curricular work.
Children are taught chronological understanding, knowledge and interpretation and historical enquiry in order to organise and communicate their learning in a range of different way including opportunities for English (reading, writing and oracy), Maths and computing. These are weaved throughout each Learning Challenge to ensure children know the audience and purpose for their work. In addition to this, opportunities for learning outside the classroom are planned when appropriate.
EYFS
The EYFS framework is structured very differently to the national curriculum as it is organised across seven areas of learning rather than subject areas. The most relevant early years outcomes for History are taken from the area of learning: Understanding the World.
Based on the National Curriculum 2014, the Learning Challenge Curriculum concept is built around the principle of greater children’s involvement with their work. The concept requires deep thinking and encourages learners to work using a question as a starting point. As part of a Learning challenge curriculum, it allows opportunities for cross curricular links to be made to ensure the children have many occasions whereby they can apply their knowledge and understanding. Individual subject skills progression ensures our children are taught a broad and balanced range of skills across subjects. Skills and knowledge ensure that learning is progressive and continuous.
Key Stage One
Pupils develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. They understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
Key Stage Two
Pupils continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. They note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.