History
Olivia Taylor and Patrick Pritchett
History Subject Leaders
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."
Marcus Garvey
The study of history encourages children to gain a coherent understanding of key people and events locally, nationally and globally from the earliest times to the present day.
History Programmes of Study (KS1 & KS2)
Vision for History
Progression in Knowledge and Skills for History at Floreat Montague Park
In Early Years, children begin their history education through the curriculum strand ‘Understanding the World’ by beginning to make sense of their own personal timeline and the stories and timelines of family members. Children have an awareness of some similarities and differences between the past and present by using common, everyday language relating to the passing of time, such as ‘before I was born’, ‘yesterday’ and ‘now’. Children explore images of the past and make comparisons with the present. Children talk about the lives of people in our local community and their roles within our society, relating it to their own life story.
In Key Stage 1, children continue to develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time, such as ‘present’, ‘past’ and ‘then’. Children look at significant historical events nationally both within living memory, such as Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and beyond living memory, including the Great Fire of London. Children begin to build an awareness about where the people and events we learn about fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between the different periods. Timelines in the classroom and in the main corridor are used to support children visually the order of events. To support the understanding of continuity and change in the past, children discover what life was like for people in Wokingham in the past, making comparisons and connections to Wokingham in the present.
In Lower Key Stage 2, the children’s chronological understanding and knowledge is consolidated and extended with a number of new eras including the Iron Age and the Roman Empire, with the aim to be able to note connections, contrasts and trends between different time periods. The children continue to use and develop their understanding of historical terminology, such as ‘reliability’, ‘evaluation’ and ‘conclusions’ in order to begin to draw their own views about historical events constructed from a range of sources and evidence. Children are used to the idea of History running throughout the curriculum through completing cross-curricular fieldwork investigations, experiencing local expertise from visitors and local organisations, allowing them to begin to ask perceptive questions to make such links.
In Upper Key Stage 2, children are encouraged to use critical thinking to ask perceptive questions, weigh up evidence and develop their own perspectives. Children are taught in more depth to understand the differences in people’s lives, including those of the present, through a consolidation of past periods as well as understanding what was happening at a point in history in different parts of the world, such as early settlements including the Anglo-Saxons. Children take part in a case study all about Victorian society, with areas including school life, work life and the role of children.
