Intent

At St Mary’s, we help our pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We foster their curiosity to know more about the past and equip them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps them to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of communities and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Implementation

Our pupils learn key facts and concepts alongside skills such as chronology, characteristic features, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical significance, historical interpretation and historical enquiry.

• Year R/1 – Changes within living memory, significant individuals

• Year 2/3 – Local history, events beyond living memory, Stone Age-Iron Age, Roman Britain

• Year 4/5 – Saxons, Vikings, Ancient Egypt, Local History, post 1066 thematic study

• Year 6 – Ancient Maya, Ancient Greece

Our pupils’ historical learning in Key Stage One starts with the familiar: their own pasts and those of their families. The children then explore the role of key historical events and figures. As our pupils’ learning travels further back in time, History is brought to life through re-enactments, topic days, trips and visitors. These experiences help to fire the pupil’s imaginations and enable them to understand how history has impacted on life today. In Key Stage Two, the story of Britain is compared with studies of ancient civilizations. Our pupils express their learning through drama, art, discussion and writing.

Impact

When pupils leave the school, their learning in history will have equipped them with knowledge of a broad period of local, British and world history, together with an excellent range of historical skills. As they have progressed, their growing historical knowledge will have helped them to understand how communities and places have changed over time and they have gained wisdom about how the past shapes lives.