Purpose of study

A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity, why the world exists as it does and the challenges of their time.

Aims

The school history curriculum 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
• 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.

Organisation

• History is mostly taught in topics although not every topic will contain history. Teachers have freedom to place their history units anywhere over the school year.
• History units have been chosen to offer breadth in both the balance of British and world history and in the teaching of the full ‘sweep’ of British history (stone age to modern Britain)
• History units are not taught chronologically. Instead, they are matched to the maturity and conceptual understanding of the pupils. For instance, World War II is taught in Y5 because of the mature content and complex concepts involved. Year groups also have a balance of ancient, early British and late British history to give a breadth of knowledge.

For more information, including the skills, knowledge and areas of study for KS1 and KS2, please see our school's curriculum overview below: