History
Aims:
We believe that history is an important subject. We want our pupils to develop their understanding of British history and ancient civilizations, developing a secure foundational knowledge base on which to build future understanding. We want our pupils to develop historical skills, such as interrogating sources, which can be used in other parts of life. Chronology underpins history and we aim for our pupils to develop the language and understanding to accurately interpret dates and sequence events.
Teaching:
In Early Years, history is part of understanding the world. Pupils develop foundational historical skills by beginning to understand the past, exploring their own histories and looking at themes by exploring famous people.
This is built on in Key Stage 1, with pupils studying changes over time and beginning to develop skills such as using sources and some language around chronology.
In Key Stage 2, history is split into three broad themes, which are built on as children progress through the school.
British History:
- The Neolithic Period
- Romans and Celts
- Saxons and Vikings (including the Battle of Hastings)
Ancient Civilizations:
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient Greece
- The Indus Valley
Thematic units look at changes over time and include topics such as medicine and crime & punishment. We also look at how the World Wars changed society and the wider world: these topics are important to us on account of our military community and Hullavington's past association with the RAF during World War Two.
Pupils will study units from British history and ancient civilizations twice- for example, Ancient Egypt is covered in Hawk Owls and in Eagle Owls. Units are taught differently, so pupils will not revisit the same content. This gives the opportunity to embed learning and also helps ensure coverage given our mobile population.
For specific units covered by each year group, please look at the overview below.
Skills and Knowledge:
Pupils will develop skills and knowledge across three different strands, with a progression in vocabulary supporting these. These are carefully planned so that skills are built up over time- for example, in KS1 source analysis might be just looking at sources, whereas by Year 6, pupils are able to identify positive/ secondary sources and highlight potential issues such as bias.
- Disciplinary knowledge: this includes general historical skills and understanding, such as knowing a primary source comes from the time period studied.
- Substantive knowledge: this includes topic-specific knowledge, such as who fought at the Battle of Hastings.
- Chronological knowledge: this includes the sequencing of events and understanding how historians organise the past.
Specific details of how these skills are built between our year groups can be found in the documents below.
