History

At Downe Primary School, we aspire to give children a high quality history education. Our intent is to transform the pupils into historians and for them to become excited and intrigued about Britain’s past and the wider world. As historians, they will be able to make enquiries into the past, ask perspective questions, think critically about the causes and events, evaluate evidence, scrutinise arguments and develop a keen skill for comparing eras and events, ordering events chronologically, using subject specific vocabulary and develop their own perspectives based on British Values regarding historical eras and events. We aim to challenge all pupils thinking and provide an environment in which learning can thrive.

History is taught through the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) scheme which enables children to approach learning by developing the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to confidently interpret periods and events from the past and the lessons that can be drawn from them. Through the IPC units, learning provides pupils with knowledge of Britain’s past (Stone Age – beyond 1066) and ancient civilisations as well as exploring significant events, people, and places in their own locality and beyond. In addition, they will acquire the skills to utilise primary and secondary sources, undertake historical enquiries and gain a historical perspective.

The IPC has been integrated with the National Curriculum to ensure pupils meet the statutory requirements in a creative and stimulating way. When planning for the IPC, teachers use the units of work to create half-termly or termly topics that pupils can relate to and that cater to their specific interests. They are adapted to meet the needs and challenge the children.

History lessons provide valuable transferable knowledge and skills to other areas of the curriculum and promote the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The curriculum is designed and taught in a progressive manner, allowing pupils to build on and broaden their prior learning throughout their time at Primary school and into their further education and beyond.

We aim to encourage children to see beyond historical evidence in written documents and books, but to explore the amazing sites and artefacts that hold keys to the world’s past. Wherever possible, our history curriculum is enhanced by trips and visitors in order to bring the curriculum to life and create lifelong memorable experiences.

During their time at Downe, children learn how:

• To gather information from a variety of sources (including books, video, internet, drama and role play, visiting speakers and trips).
• To understand how particular aspects of history have impacted on present day.
• To make connections and draw conclusions between significant historical events.
• To place events, people and changes into chronological order and consider how these changes have affected the wider world.
• To understand a wide range of historical vocabulary.
• To describe and identify reasons for and results of historical events.
• History affects lives of people in the present.

IPC

The IPC topics are matched to the National Curriculum. Across Key Stage 1 the IPC Units taught are ‘Treasure Island’, ‘Time Travellers’, ‘A Day in the Life’, ‘From A to B’, ‘Buildings’, ‘The Magic Toymaker’ and ‘People of the Past’. These cover the Key Stage National Curriculum by teaching changes in living memory, an event beyond living memory, a local history study, the first aeroplane flight and lives of significant individuals respectively.

Across Key Stage 2 the IPC Units taught are ‘Island Life’, ‘Scavengers and Settlers’, ‘Temples, Tombs and Treasures’, ‘Different places, Similar Lives’, ‘All Aboard’, ‘Space Scientists’, ‘The Great, The Bold and The Brave’, ‘The Holiday Show’ and ‘900 CE’. These cover the Key Stage 2 National Curriculum by teaching achievements of the earliest civilizations (Ancient Egyptians); changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age; a non-European society (Maya); The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain, Britain’s settlement by the Anglo-Saxons, the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle of England and Ancient Greece.

History is now taught during a block session – this could mean that your child is not being taught History until later on in the year. Knowledge Organisers that support the teaching of the IPC have been introduced. The knowledge organisers have been carefully planned so that lessons are clearly sequenced and there is a clear knowledge and skill WALT for each lesson.

How is History taught in the EYFS?

In EYFS, early history skills that underpin the teaching of history within the National Curriculum are developed via the area of Learning: Understanding the World. In EYFS, these historical skills are extended from looking at the child’s family’s past to wider, but familiar situations in the past.

Children begin by learning about the concept of past and present and relating it to themselves, how they are now and what they were like as babies. This is then extended to include their own history and their families. During these lessons, children are taught to identify the similarities and differences between now and then and they start to sequence events. Later in the year, the children are introduced to different Fairy Tales, including classics and modern versions. This can expose the children to a variety of characters and how certain roles in society have changed over time. Through these traditional tales, children are also exposed to different ways of life and a range of different object that we may not find in everyday life today; this allows us to examine the characters, settings and events to help children develop an understanding of the past. Finally, children examine toys from the past and the present and animals that are extinct – this allows them to compare what they have today to what was available and popular during different eras and the causes and consequences of the changes.