History

The aim of History teaching at Janet Duke Primary School is to stimulate children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past.

Children are taught a sense of chronology; through this they develop a sense of identity and cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. They learn their own value and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today.

In our school, history makes a significant contribution to PSHE and citizenship education by teaching children how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by doing so, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem-solving.

Foundation Stage History is taught as a part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, the history part of the children’s work is linked to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELGs).   History makes a significant contribution to the ELG objectives of developing a child’s knowledge and understanding of the world through activities such as dressing up in historical outfits, looking at famous people in history or discovering the meaning of new and out in relation to their own lives.

Year 1 children are taught History under the following topics: The Great Fire of London, Inventors, Explorers and Adventurers, Castles and Then and Now.

Year 2 children are taught History under the following topics: Famous People, The Seaside and History around us.

Year 3 children are taught History under the following topics: Stone Age, Iron Age and The Egyptians.

Year 4 children are taught History under the following topics: The Ancient Greeks and Ancient Rome.

Year 5 children are taught History under the following topics: The Mayans, Anglo Saxons, Vikings and The Tudors.

Year 6 children are taught History under the following topics: The Victorians and World War II.

At the beginning of every topic, a unit plan is produced that details the objectives for each unit, practical work that will be completed, key vocabulary, models, diagrams and key questioning. These are working documents and are adapted as per the needs of the children. We feel that child-led learning is extremely important and therefore try to follow the children’s direction wherever possible whilst still achieving our objectives. Teachers plan individual lessons using a range of different schemes of resources to ensure that lessons are as engaging and exciting as possible for our children.

Displays

All classes have a Topic display, where the key vocabulary for each topic is displayed for the children to use in their work. Each display aims to provide interactive activities for the children to take part in as well as promoting examples of work produced by the children. This can include photocopies of work taken from books. Key questions are generated from planning and evident on display for children which helps assess children’s learning and support retrieval of information.