ALL SAINTS’ RC PRIMARY HISTORY POLICY

OVERVIEW

In school we will help all children to develop an understanding of time, place, people and events through the effective teaching and learning of the knowledge skills and understanding of history. We will use the National Curriculum History Guidelines as the basis for our scheme of work and we will make meaningful links with the other subjects of the curriculum. Our aim is to ignite a curiosity to learn about the past that will help children understand who they are and how their environment and the world has changed over time.

INTENT

1. To help all children develop a sense of the past and to develop a chronological framework for learning about life in past times.
2. To enable children to learn about famous people and their impact on our lives.
3. To develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the growth and development of our nation and its relationship with the rest of the world.
4. To develop children’s skills as historians to enable them to research and discover the past.

IMPLEMENTATION

1. We will begin the teaching of history in Foundation Stage as the children begin developing their knowledge skills and understanding of the world by starting with the most recent past. We will use photographs, artefacts, visits out into the locality, and by talking to older people about ‘then and now’
2. As the children move into Key Stage 1 they will build on their earlier work using ‘living memory’, eye-witness accounts’ and the immediate environment of the school as their starting point.
3. Strong links will be made with the teaching of English. Stories, plays and poems set in different periods of history will be shared with the children.
4. History will become a stimulus and a springboard for the development of oracy, writing and for the development of thinking and reasoning skills.
5. As they become older the children will learn about at least one of the different periods of history set out in the history guidelines of the National Curriculum.
6. Art, design technology, drama will be closely linked with history as children use these subjects to communicate what they have learnt.
7. On every appropriate occasion teachers will use first-hand experience, visits, visitors, artefacts, AVA and the local and wider environment to engage children’s interest and imagination.
8. Through their understanding of the past and of lives in different conditions children will be encouraged to develop their feelings and ‘empathy’ for others.
9. Through their understanding of the past children will be helped to develop an understanding of their identity as a British subject.
10. Children will learn about development of democracy, our government, the Monarchy, citizenship, and the Law. They will learn about rights and responsibilities, moral, social and environmental issues.
11. We will use financial resources to build up an extensive collection of resources, artefacts and books to support the teaching of history.

IMPACT

History will be fun. It will be used to promote excellence and enjoyment; it will have a strong presence in the ethos of the school through displays, performances, music, drama and assemblies. Parents and grand-parents will be encouraged to join in the teaching and learning of history. We will make Britain our classroom. Pupils will develop an understanding of changes over time in people, places, landscape and culture. They will know about different periods in our history, people who brought about change and significant developments that changed Britain and the world.

Revised and adopted by the Governing …September 2021…

Review Date… September 2022…

“The more you know about the past,

                  the better prepared you are for the future.” Theodore Roosevelt