History

History at D’Eyncourt Primary

At D’Eyncourt, a high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.

It will also inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Our teaching will equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.

History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

The national curriculum for history 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 connections, 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, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales

Key Stage 1

• ‘Changes’ these units will be used to reveal aspects of changes in national life, such as ‘Homes: Then and Now’ and ‘Going to the Seaside’ looking at changes over the past 100 years
• events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally, for example, the Great Fire of London and the sinking of the Titanic
• the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements such as Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, Grace Darling, Mary Secole and Florence Nightingale.
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

Key Stage 2

Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age

This will include:

• late Neolithic hunter-gatherers and early farmers, for example, Skara Brae
• Bronze Age religion, technology and travel, for example, Stonehenge
• Iron Age hill forts: tribal kingdoms, farming, art and culture

The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain

This will include:

• Julius Caesar’s attempted invasion in 55-54 BC
• the Roman Empire by AD 42 and the power of its army
• successful invasion by Claudius and conquest, including Hadrian’s Wall
• British resistance, for example, Boudica
• ‘Romanisation’ of Britain: sites such as Caerwent and the impact of technology, culture and beliefs, including early Christianity

Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots

This will include:

• Roman withdrawal from Britain in c. AD 410 and the fall of the western Roman Empire
• Scots invasions from Ireland to north Britain (now Scotland)
• Anglo-Saxon invasions, settlements and kingdoms: place names and village life
• Anglo-Saxon art and culture
• Christian conversion Canterbury, Iona and Lindisfarne

Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor

This will include:

• Viking raids and invasion
• resistance by Alfred the Great and Athelstan, first king of England
• further Viking invasions and Danegeld
• Anglo-Saxon laws and justice
• Edward the Confessor and his death in 1066
• A study of an aspect or theme in British History Industrial Revolution Links to Local History study (Wolverhampton & Black Country)
  This will include:
• A study investigating how an aspect in the local area has changed over a long period of time or how the locality was affected by significant events of the time and the work of significant individuals (Famous local Victorians)
• The achievements of the earliest civilizations an overview of where and when the first civilizations appeared: Ancient Sumer, the Indus Valley and the Shang Dynasty of Ancient China and an in depth study of Ancient Egypt.
• Ancient Greece a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world. There will be a emphasis on legacy e.g. democracy, buildings, philosophy, Olympics, theatre etc.

Key Concepts

Download Key Concepts History

Key Vocabulary

Download Key Vocabulary History

Knowledge Organisers

Knowledge Organisers are an excellent assessment tool that can help identify gaps in learning and inform planning, teaching, and intervention. As we have developed our own curriculum, class teachers have also developed knowledge organisers to work alongside our curriculum. Children will be encouraged to refer to knowledge organisers throughout sessions to help support and enhance their learning.

Knowledge organisers can be a valuable tool for children, staff, and parents. Class teachers are the ones who write the knowledge organiser, to set out their expectations of what pupils should learn about a topic – and to clarify their own thinking around what is important.

School leaders, headteachers, and subject leaders then may look at a series of knowledge organisers to check for progression and continuity both within and across curriculum subjects and to ensure standards and expectations for learning are being implemented, and if not, what CPD is required.

Pupils will review, revise and quiz themselves using their knowledge organisers. Knowledge organisers are a really clear and easy-to-understand way for parents to be more aware of what their children are learning and thus to support them.

Some of the benefits of knowledge organisers

1. A knowledge organiser makes the teacher think hard about what will be taught.
2. Knowledge organisers are an endless source of meaningful homework activities.
3. Knowledge organisers are an excellent tool for inclusion.
4. Knowledge organisers create opportunities for spaced retrieval practice.
5. Ahead of a summative assessment at the end of a topic, you can inform pupils that some of the questions will refer to previous learning; pupils can then refer to the knowledge organiser to access and practice those topics.
6. Used appropriately, knowledge organisers can increase the retention of facts.

Knowledge Organiser – Year 2

Download Knowledge Organiser – Year 2

Download Knowledge Organiser – Year 5

Cultural Capital

According to the national curriculum, cultural capital is the ‘essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’ (Ofsted School Inspection Handbook 2019). We are confident that history lessons at D’Eyncourt deliver the knowledge to enable children to function as well-informed individuals who can engage with different aspects of society and thrive in the modern world. Our history curriculum starts with British history but extends to the wider world to broaden children’s minds and appreciation of different cultures. Every year group has access to high-quality educational visits outside of the classroom (both locally and further afield) to spark interest and excitement, bring historical periods to life and increase cultural capital. High-quality reading books and secondary sources are available in classrooms so children have the opportunity to research different topics themselves. We also encourage family learning to take place during the term so that adults can experience their children’s history curriculum themselves and partake in the sharing of knowledge with their child.

Policies

History Policy