“A people without the knowledge of their past history,

origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

                                                                                                                                           Marcus Garvey

Intent

At Bevois Town Primary School, we want to ignite children’s curiosity to know more about the past and to help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s history and that of the wider world.

Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, culture and local community has developed over time, children will understand how the past influences the present. In our school, History teaching focuses on enabling children to think like historians, equipping pupils not just with historical skills but with transferable lifelong learning skills: to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, appreciate different perspectives and develop informed judgements.

Our curriculum has been carefully planned so that children develop a secure understanding of the history of the British Isles from Prehistoric to Anglo-Saxon times before then building on this knowledge when learning about ancient civilizations elsewhere in the world, in turn constructing a secure historical narrative of world history.

Historical knowledge is taught alongside the development of subject specific skills including, interpretations of evidence, changes within and across time periods as well as examining cause and consequence. Historical concepts are explicitly taught and carefully mapped across the curriculum, as are the teaching of historical terms such as ‘empire’ and ‘civilisation’. This enables children to embed and refine their understanding and engage with these terms and concepts with growing confidence. Through our curriculum, our aim is for children to make connections across the periods of history they study; drawing contrasts, analysing trends, and creating their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.

History at Bevois Town is taught through broad, challenging and inspiring topics, which are used to deliver the content within a meaningful context and wherever possible, make connections to learning in other subjects to enrich and deepen learning. The topics have been designed to complement and build on one another with clear progression and links so that in subsequent year groups, children will be able to explore concepts more deeply, applying their knowledge in different contexts.