History Curriculum Statement
At Harewood Primary School, we teach a broad range of stimulating and inclusive topics from Understanding and Knowledge of the World in Early Years and across Key Stages 1 and 2. Our intent is to develop our children’s historical skills, embed knowledge and provide understanding which they can apply as lifelong learners. We aim to encourage their interest, curiosity and enthusiasm in collecting and interpreting information about the past, asking relevant questions, pursuing their own enquiries and increasingly forming their own opinions, and making history relevant to their sense of now. We want them to become curious, and then to take pride, in the rich, quirky history of innovation and discovery in our own area. We wish them to enjoy and engage with the amazing stories and characters from real life in each of the units we teach.
A creative approach using art, drama and IT is incorporated into teaching to ensure high levels of motivation and engagement from the children. The sequence of units of work is selected to reflect the age appropriate level of understanding required by our children to fully engage with the themes. We use historical topics during English to develop their literacy skills and expand on our children’s historical knowledge and understanding. Visits to museums and historic sites providing first-hand experiences are planned throughout school, and visitors are also invited in to bring topics to life.
History is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning. Teachers identify the key knowledge and skills of each topic; consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school. By the end of year 6, we intend our children to have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present, and the ability to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. They also study key areas of world history, such as the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and the Mayans (and soon of the Indus Valley), as well as Black History. This helps them to understand that British history is not isolated, that it not only shares similarities in historical stories with these ancient cultures, but in some cases has been also been influenced by them.
Above all, we intend to make the history we teach relevant to our children’s own experiences and their own communities. We particularly aim to use the significant opportunities it offers to encourage the growth of their personal qualities, such as tolerance, respect for other people and cultures, self-discipline, open-mindedness, reasoning, and speaking and listening.
