History

At All Saints' School, the history curriculum is delivered through active learning with the aim of developing historical skills, an understanding of chronology and knowledge of the aspects covered. We do this through the enquiry-based approach to learning in order to develop our pupils' enquiring minds. This enables them to make links between aspects and become critical thinkers.

In the Early Years, the focus is upon the child's own personal history and being able to order events throughout the day or across the week.

At Key Stage 1, the emphasis is on the children learning about how things were in the past in relation to how they are now. Children identify the similarities and differences between the past and modern day life. They learn about significantly influential past events and people, such as History Makers, Florence Nightingale and Great Explorers. The teachers use a cross-curricular approach and the majority of their literacy work is linked to their topic.

At Key Stage 2, History is taught through a cross-curricular approach. The topics covered are: Local History Study, changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, the Shang Dynasty, the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, the Mayan Civilisation, the Anglo Saxons and the Scots, the Vikings, The Battle of Britain and historical cultural diversity, and it's impact on the wider world.

There is a strong emphasis on the children understanding the chronology of the events and being able to place the events in historic order using a timeline. Wherever possible, we incorporate visits and visitors to support and enrich the children’s understanding of history.

The children look at sources of evidence, such as photographs, 'artefacts', stories, etc, discussing their validity and examining what it tells us about the particular era of study.

Alongside all of this wealth of knowledge that we strive for the children to develop, we have two 'Golden Threads' running through each topic of study.

Looks at the religious impact within the time period, on the people and culture, chosen due to us being a CofE school.
Looks at the historical impact locally, if any, of any time period studied. We feel that this is very important, not only as a link to 'Cultural Capital' but also because we want the children to understand the historical relevance to their immediate locality.