Taking children through relevant historical periods, we believe that it is essential to secure an understanding of chronology through the use of timelines and chronological frameworks. We appreciate that History within our locality is an important factor for our children to develop a sense of identity which is relevant to them. We have various focusses on our local History such as ‘Proud Potters’ where the children look at someone famous that has impacted on the society that they are a part of.
The Subject Leader:
We are Mrs Mellor and Mrs Blood and we are the History subject leaders at Eaton Park Academy. Our role is to lead, develop and support History across the academy. We ensure that teachers have the knowledge, confidence, skills and resources to deliver engaging lessons that stimulate a fascination about Britain’s past and the wider world. As History leads, we ensure teachers within the school consistently deliver History across the academy. We ensure that we keep our CPD up to date by attending History courses provided by the Historic England and making links with other Alpha trust schools. As subject leaders, this helps to open our minds to new approaches and to broaden the resources and artefacts that we are able to provide for the children. In order to gain an understanding of how History is taught across the school, we ensure that History is monitored termly, gaining evidence from books, learning walks and pupil voice. This then informs the strengths of History within the school and allows us to focus on areas of development.
The Curriculum:
Key stage 1
Pupils should be taught about:
– Changed within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life
– Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally for example: Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries
– The lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth 1 and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, May Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell]
– Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
Key stage 2
Pupils should be taught about:
– Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
– The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
– Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots.
– The Viking and Anglo Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor.
– A local History study.
– A study of an aspect or theme in British History that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
– The achievements of the earliest civilisations
– an overview of where and when the first civilisations appeared and a depth study of one of the following: Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley, Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China.
– Ancient Greece
– a study of Greek; life and achievements and their influence on the western world.
– A non-European society that provides contrasts with British History
– one chosen from: early Islamic civilisation, including a study of Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan civilisation c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300
Early Years Foundation Stage:
History is taught within Early Years as part of their topic work. The historical aspects of their topic work are taken from objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals. In Early Years, History makes a significant contribution to developing a child’s understanding of the world. Partaking in activities such as talking about things they have done in the past and discussing the meaning of vocabulary such as ‘new’ and ‘old’ are just some of the ways that children develop an understanding of the world they live in. Children in Early Years take part in many educational visits which support their understanding of the world such as a visit to the local museum to support learning about old and new.
Assessment for learning:
Teachers continue to assess children’s understanding and skills, making informal judgements within lessons. The teacher’s review of the knowledge recalls, completed work and activities within the lesson will inform the planning of future lessons. Verbal feedback is given within lessons to provide immediate feedback to guide the children as well as written feedback to provide praise as well as any next steps to support or deepen the child’s learning.
History within other curriculum subjects:
SMSC – SMSC underpins our History curriculum, ensuring that the teaching of History contributes to the SMSC values. History is concerned with time and chronology, which gives our children a sense of identity both socially and culturally. Children are encouraged to think and debate about social ideas within an historical context such as “Would you prefer to go to a school in the past or a school now?”
English – We have some alignments in our curriculum where history units are supported by a text. For example, the topic of ‘The Three Ages’ is embedded through the delivery and use of the Stone-Age boy text. This not only ensures that historical knowledge is developed in English lessons, but also that children are more able to immerse themselves in the type of language that were used during that period.
Maths – History contributes to children’s mathematical understanding in a multitude of ways. Within Key stage 1, there is a focus on developing an understanding of time and chronology. This is achieved by sequencing events and using timelines to order events and objects. Within Key stage 2, children deepen this chronological understanding by creating their own timelines related to their historical period of learning and apply skills of using and ordering numbers. Children also apply mathematical understanding when learning about Roman numerals.
PSHE – Throughout the teaching of History, children explore different historical eras, which shows how life was in those days compared to now. Children are encouraged to think about how they would feel back then, comparing to everyday life now. They are also encouraged to take part in discussions about their personal thoughts and opinions. For example: Children in Year one are posed the question “Would you prefer to have the toys from the past or toys from today and why?” Discussions within History lessons, as well as sharing opinions and being considerate and respectful of these also contribute to the aims of PSHE.
Computing – The use of computing as a vehicle to enhance our History curriculum is used in a variety of ways. Children use the internet as part of their research based learning and use tools such as PowerPoint to present their findings.
History Quality Mark
Over a meticulous process, our academy applied for the silver History Quality Mark in Association with the Historical Association in the aim to validate the quality of our History provision. During the inspection, our passion to deliver high-quality lessons and to fully embed the children’s learning. As a result of the day, we were successful in achieving the Silver Award which is a fantastic achievement.
Historical Association Quality Mark Report
Character curriculum:
To enhance the History curriculum, we value Character curriculum and visitors to allow the children to make connections between what they have learnt in class and the experience which they have acquired from historical specialists. Such visits include: Nursery visit Amerton Farm where they ride a steam train. Reception visit a local museum to explore objects from the past.
Year 1 – Visit Sudbury Museum linked to the changes in recent History.
Year 2 Visit Ford Green Hall linked to the unit, ‘The Great Fire of London.’
Year 3 – Visit to Tatton Park linked to the Stone Age.
Year 4 – Take part in the Dewa Roman experience in Chester where they look at Roman walls and march as a Roman soldier around the town centre.
Year 5 – Attending Ford Green Hall linked in with the Tudors. Year 6 – Evacuee trip is planned linked to and a visit Blist Hill Victorian working museum too.
Pupil Voice:
Florence – Year 2 – In history we travel through time to learn about what happened in the past
Daisy – Year 3 – We use Sources of Evidence in history to help us to find out and learn about the past and what people have said.
