INTENT
History at Heene will equip our children with a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past as well as the people and events which have shaped our island story.
Our children’s journey through the history curriculum will nurture curiosity, create critical thinkers and promote historical enquiry. It will give children a solid understanding of chronology and the concept of time which will allow them to make connections between long and short-term timescales and how different periods relate to each other.
Through the use of source material and historical evidence we will give opportunities for our children to follow a line of enquiry by asking questions, seeking answers and challenging accuracy. As our children move through the school they will be equipped with the skills to discover, to be curious, to interpret and to challenge.
The curriculum has been devised to give children a strong knowledge and understanding of local, national and international history. The Sussex coast and the wider area provide rich learning opportunities for us to learn how people’s lives have been shaped by national and international events and the impact that these have had on the area in which we live.
Our journey through the past will equip our pupils to gain knowledge and understanding of significant aspects of the history of the wider world. As our children progress from EYFS to Year 6, they will investigate people, events and narratives who have made a difference to our nation’s culturally rich society. The end points for our children’s historical journey will provide our pupils with the ability to seek their own conclusions by asking questions and seeking evidence for themselves.
Heene historians will write with knowledge, analyse with confidence and argue with passion and respect.
IMPLEMENTATION
EYFS
As our children embark on their Heene learning journey , they start with themselves by discovering who they are and how they belong to their family and that of the wider community. Through story-telling and narrative, they learn about life stories and how their story fits into the family to which they belong as well as to the wider world. The children look at photographs and pictures of their early life and that of their parents and grandparents. This will give them an early glimpse into the past and what it looks like for them. It will help them to develop an early understanding of chronology and the language of now and then. Identifying what is similar and what is different will help our children to describe how change takes place over time.
KS1
As our children move into Key Stage 1, they will begin to develop chronological understanding by learning about changes that have taken place in living memory by using timelines to create an historical narrative. They will use the language of similarity and difference to compare what life was life for their parents and grandparents and how it has changed over the last century. This will enable them to draw simple conclusions about change over time. They will devise their own questions about change and they will investigate how transport, technology and toys have developed over the last century. The will learn how these changes affected people’s lives and continue to impact on our lives. They will use and apply historical vocabulary about the past and use these skills to make predictions of their own for the future. Through being able to identify and understanding change, they will look for evidence to discover the history of space travel. Children will be introduced to significant individuals who have made an impact on our country and have changed and inspired others’ lives. Learning about change in our locality will allow children to identify how the area in which they live has developed over time. Being able to place Worthing’s past on a timeline will allow children to ask how and why this change has taken place.
There will be opportunities to study historical figures who reflect the diversity of our country, great leadership and strong Christian values. This will enable our pupils to further their understanding of the way in which we can live out our school values. Our children will learn how to identify the different ways that there are to represent and interpret the past. Using artefacts, picture, photographs, diaries, letters and stories our children will move to Key Stage 2 with the ability to identify and question the effectiveness of sources.
Children will learn how to write reports, label and annotate source material and produce their recounts that are based on evidence.
LKS2
In Lower Key Stage 2, the children will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of chronology by using timelines to place events and to relate them to the period which they are studying. Children will be introduced to more complex terms such as BCE and AD. They will look at similarity and difference by comparing what they discover about the lives of other people in the past with their lives today. They will use evidence to suggest the reasons how and why people acted in the way that they did. For example, they might investigate the art of the Celtic people by observing intricate patterns in a shield and asking questions about the skills and techniques used. They will develop a broad understanding of ancient civilisations by using evidence to look for links between the ancient peoples of the Sumer, the Indus Valley and Egypt.
Each unit of work will start with an overarching question, which will stimulate historical enquiry and enable children to investigate the issues and ideas behind it. For example, in Year 4 pupils will be asked ‘What makes a good king?’ They will be given the opportunity to use evidence to discover what a good king looks like and how a monarch such as Henry VIII has been represented in the past. Continually asking questions and furthering knowledge will support children’s ability to frame their understanding in a variety of ways including through discussions, pictures, annotations and writing.
Historical knowledge and research will be introduced through the use of the library to build an evidence base and children will develop their e-research skills. Children will look at and use the evidence which is available to them to begin to evaluate their usefulness. Using and understanding data will enable the children to answer historical questions and to discover the impact that an event or a period of time might have had on a civilisation or empire. For example the children might investigate how the Christianity came to Britain by using a map to compare the number of churches in Sussex with another area of country.
UKS2
History in Upper Key Stage 2 will build on the children’s knowledge of Britain’s past and the wider world. It will give them the tools to allow them to be historically accurate and to become historically articulate.
The curriculum continues to further the children’s understanding of chronology by comparing the units of work that they are studying with other periods. This will allow them to make comparisons between different times in history and to use relevant terms related to the periods that they have studied.
They will carry out a local history study which allows children to investigate how the railways ‘built Sussex.’ In Year 5, they will examine the causes of ‘railway mania’ and the impact that this had on Worthing and its surrounding area. The children will be introduced to primary and secondary sources and through a thematic study such as how crime and punishment they will use their research skills to link sources and work out how and why conclusions were reached. They will be given the opportunity to reflect on evidence and to consider ways of checking the accuracy of interpretation and whether these are fact, fiction or opinion. By Year 6 the children will be aware that different evidence will lead to different conclusions. They will become confident users of the library and e-research and they will build their knowledge gathering from several sources in order to create coherent and fluent account. Through the study of World War 2, they might consider the role that people of colour played in the war and how evidence from the time might ignore it. They will be able to recognise that the views, beliefs and behaviour of people in the past will not necessarily be shared by people today. They will be given the opportunity to compare their own values and beliefs with another period.
Our Year 6 children will be able to write alternative explanations for a past event by using evidence to explain and support their opinions. They will compare and contrast ancient civilisations through their study of the Ancient Greeks and the Mayans. Our children will use a variety of ways to communicate their knowledge and understanding of history through extended writing and by planning and carrying out their own investigations.
They will investigate what life was like in Worthing and the surrounding area during World War 2. They will confidently handle and interpret primary and secondary sources to discover the impact of national events on local people. Source material, from eyewitness accounts to newspaper reports will enable the children to give accounts of the experience of the war for local people. They will plan and carry out an investigation into the Lancaster bomber which crashed on Worthing beach.
