Skip to content
Home > Our Learning > Our Curriculum > History

History

At Emmbrook Infant School we value the importance of a high-quality, history education which helps pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past, including recent events in living memory, and that of the wider world. The curriculum will inspire pupils’ curiosity to know and enquire more about the past. Teaching will equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, develop perspective and build their subject knowledge.

History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives and cultures, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

At Emmbrook Infant School we know that children are naturally curious and we encourage this inquisitive nature throughout their time with us and beyond, through the History curriculum as well as all other aspects of their learning and other areas of the curriculum. An understanding and appreciation of history will equip pupils with information that will support their future decision making.

The 2014 National Curriculum for History aims to ensure that all children:

  • 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.

History in the Early Years:

  • History is explored through the children’s Understanding of the World, past and present.
  • An understanding of the past is developed through the study of their own lives and family members. This early knowledge feeds in to an understanding of how significant people and events have shaped the past both nationally and across the wider world.
  • Historical enquiry in the EYFS supports the learning that will take place in KS1 and enables historical knowledge to be built on.
  • Learning is through hands-on, practical experiences using historical artefacts and sources.
  • We provide opportunities for children to question, wonder, explore, discover, experiment and observe through direct experiences.
  • The children are introduced to the historical vocabulary of time to help them further their understanding of chronology starting within their own lifetime and progressing to events in history. 

Implementation

Teachers create a positive attitude to historical learning within their classrooms and reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in History.

The curriculum is planned to cover the requirements of the National Curriculum. Each unit of work is driven by an enquiry focus led by a series of key concept questions. Through these units, teachers reinforce key historical vocabulary and inspire historical curiosity.

Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of history involves the following;

  • We have developed a spiral scheme of work which supports the National Curriculum and builds on knowledge, skills and understanding year on year. Learning is facilitated through pupils pursuing a key question enquiry led approach, which encourages them to take increasing responsibility for their learning, think independently and achieve challenging subject outcomes.
  • We teach history so that children have as much understanding as possible to know what it must have been like to live in particular periods in history by having practical experiences within lessons. learning is delivered through practical historical workshops, the study of primary sources and artefacts, films, visits and visitors, and drama to excite and intrigue our children to develop curiosity.
  • The range of historical figures chosen to study, reflects both national and world significant events and achievements, as well as the cultural heritage of our school and the diverse society we live in today.
  • The scheme allows for a balance between links made with new content and the development of important subject skills and the ability of children to think critically about what they are learning and why. The History Curriculum has also been adapted to accommodate important local historical links and significant events in their lifetime.
  • Bespoke classroom timelines enable our children to develop an understanding of chronology enabling them to build on their understanding of the past and make links between the people and events that they have studied.
  • This approach is reflected in all of our planning. We ask insightful questions, which in turn support pupils to delve deeply into aspects of historical topics both at a local, national and international level.
  • Each unit of work contains a list of the historical vocabulary we expect the children to be exposed to and to then in turn, use in their speech and their work. Vocabulary is built on through each unit, and year on year.
  • Teachers demonstrate how to interpret historical sources when appropriate, and model the various historical skills required in order to embed historical understanding.
  • The school’s local environment is used to experience hands on learning when the children will study and observe local buildings relevant to the time periods they study.

Impact

Impact is measured in a variety of ways: through cold and hot tasks, speech bubbles which capture geographical thinking, work in pupil books and observations in class.

We revisit previous topics and concepts to assess if the children have remembered previous learning some time later, including their understanding of chronology and if significant peoples and events could have occurred or lived at the same time.

All pupils will leave the Infant School with an increased knowledge and understanding of chronology and the legacy of key events and the actions of significant people studied.  Pupils will be able to engage with and evaluate different historical sources understanding that evidence informs us of what happened many, many years ago,  encouraging them to reflect, debate and evaluate the past, think critically and to develop a passion for history as young historians. In addition, learning from the past will help pupils to understand how the future can be different.

This curriculum provides a strong cultural capital that allows pupils to learn lessons from history that will positively influence the decisions that they make in their future lives.