History

Here at Sturton by Stow Primary School, our aim is that our History curriculum inspires our children to incite enthusiasm and curiosity to want to learn more about the past. We aim to help our children to gain a coherent knowledge of Britain's past and that of the wider world.

Through our History curriculum we want children to be:

confident in their knowledge of History topics taught and able to ask perceptive questions.
able to think critically and consider 'evidence' and different interpretations of the past.
able to draw connections between events and how History can affect the present or the future.
confident in using, applying and understanding subject-specific terminology.

Our History Curriculum

To support these aims, our History curriculum is structured so there is opportunity for repetition and consolidation of key concepts and historical skills. We use the idea of concepts to ensure that children can gain the most out of our curriculum and can see history as a continuous timeline rather than isolated events of the past. We encourage these concepts to be taught explicitly in lessons and revisited to make connections through different points in our past. This is supported via our school timeline, where classes visit every term to understand where their unit of history is in relation to other units of time they have studied, enabling them to develop a broad historical understanding. Children are increasingly challenged as they move through the school. We use 'sticky knowledge' throughout the topic as well as during alternate terms to aid children's recall / learning and to demonstrate progress and understanding.

At Sturton by Stow, we teach History in 3 out of our 6 terms. Where possible, it is linked to English texts and activities so that children are able to see an increased purpose to their learning and transfer skills between subjects. During our History lessons, we encourage teachers to take an inclusive attitude to the children's learning. This can be done by using drama and art and allows all types of learners to access our curriculum. We also encourage there to be pieces of writing which can show that the children understand and can develop the links between English writing and non-core curriculum subjects.

We use the 2014 National Curriculum for History which 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 connection, 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, economical, military, political, religious and social history; and between short and long-term timescales.

History in EYFS

In Early Years Foundation Stage, History is taught through Understanding the World - this includes asking, discussing and understanding about past and present. Children discuss events in their own lives and also the lives of their family members. Children in EYFS also learn about isolated figures in History such as Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks and Antarctic explorers to allow them to make those greater connections with understanding the world and its past. Children will be able to acknowledge similarities and differences between their own traditions in comparison with their peers and those from other communities. These historical concepts are built upon throughout Key Stages 1 and 2.