History Curriculum Overview
Subject leader – Miss Murphy
This is our Intent, Implementation and Impact statement for history. History Intent, Implementation and Impact
Our vision for History is that all pupils develop skills through an enquiry approach.
In History pupils are encouraged to question their understanding of the past allowing them to enjoy all that History has to offer. Through the use of artefact and exciting trips, pupils gain an in-depth understanding of significant events in British history as well as appreciating how things change over time. Without History, there would be no future!
History is central to many of our topics at Sunnybrow Primary as it allows pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It inspires pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past and equips them 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 and the challenges of their time.
Across EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, subject specific skills are taught, for example interpreting history, inquiry skills and chronological understanding are taught.
Aims
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.
EYFS
Foundation Stage history is part of the national curriculum’s learning objectives for developing children’s understanding of the world, so they will learn through experiences that introduce the concept of time and change.
Pupils will be asked ‘What happened next?’ after reading a story or looking at other sequences of events, such as getting dressed, planting a seed or making a sandwich. A popular focus is to get children to bring in photographs of themselves as babies and to discuss how they have changed over time.
Pupils will also explore patterns and routines and may be given opportunities to take part in events to celebrate time, like planting an anniversary tree. It’s common for pupils to be encouraged to record their findings by drawing or writing.
Key Stage 1
Pupils should develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They should 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 should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They should 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 should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
Key Stage 2
Each year group gets a wide scope of history. They study a period of British history before 1066, an ancient civilisation from around the world, and either an aspect of British history post-1066 or the local area. The British units are delivered in chronological order, from the Stone Age right up to the settlement by the Vikings to build-up the children’s understanding of the story of Britain and how it developed over time. They then begin to learn about the Tudors and the Victorians to get a picture of how their ancestors used to live.
By studying Ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Egyptians and the Romans, pupils begin to understand how foreign civilisations affected modern life.
Progression of skills document:
Geography Curriculum Overview
Subject leader – Mr Vincent
This is our Geography Intent, Implementation and Impact statement Geography
At Sunnybrow Primary School we believe a high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about their local area and the world as a whole. Teaching should provide children with knowledge about the location of different places, people, worldwide climates resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As children progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, connected and have changed over time.
Aims
The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.
- Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.
- Are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
- Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
- Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.Pupils know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness.Pupils should extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include the United Kingdom and Europe, North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features. They should develop their use of geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge.
- Key stage 2
- Key stage 1
- EYFS
