History

Intent

At New Horizons Seaside Primary, we believe that all children should leave us with a coherent understanding of the world’s past which they are curious to develop throughout their future. We aim to provide a range of historical experiences and resources to give learning a context, ensuring children recognise the value of history in the modern day.  

Implementation

Throughout their time at Seaside, children are encouraged to be curious and open-minded towards history, developing an understanding of changes over time, the complexity of people’s lives and relationships between different groups. Trips, resources, the local area and technology are used collectively to support children in developing understanding and perspective.

EYFS: Children begin to think about their own personal history by sharing their memories, thinking about their future and making comparisons with each other.

KS1: Children begin to explore key historical events and periods through visits, historical resources and following lines of enquiry. Teachers provide children with the opportunity to raise their own questions and support them with finding answers through the use of various sources.

KS2: Children continue to develop a chronologically secure understanding of both local and world history, drawing connections and identifying trends over time. Children use opportunities within the local community such as museums, individuals and libraries to follow their own lines of enquiry and consolidate their understanding.

Impact

Children leave Seaside with a chronologically secure understanding of the world’s past and recognise the importance of history in modern life. They are curious to extend their knowledge further and know how our understanding of the past is constructed. Children are able to learn key lessons from the past and can take this learning and understanding forward to enhance their future. The skills which they have gained are transferable across a full range of subjects and curricular areas and will support them in their future learning.

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 and the challenges of their time.

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.