History at Bedfield Church of England Primary School
History at Bedfield
Studying History in our Curriculum
Learning History at our school aims develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of historical aspects of their local area, Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We set out to inspire and ignite pupils’ curiosity to know more about times gone by. As our pupils progress, they will become equipped to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspectives and judgement. We want pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, processes of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Our history curriculum investigates identity, improves understanding of the impact of decision making of powerful key individuals and significant events, alongside developing a sense of chronology and time. We intend our history curriculum to come to life through the addition of visitors to the school, drama, use of artefacts and day trips.
Key Principles
Teaching and learning history builds on National Curriculum objectives and is integrated, where relevant, with other curriculum subjects. Emphasis is placed upon acquiring and securing historical knowledge and understanding of subject specific vocabulary.
It is our intention to ignite fascination and establish inquiring minds in pupils when they are learning about the past. Children begin by securing a conceptual understanding of the past within living memory, exploring personal and generational family history within their local context, and subsequent social and cultural changes over time. Conception of time is widened beyond living memory into the Victorian era to continue to map the process of change, comparing then and now and examining reasons for evolving life styles and patterns of behaviour in childhood, family units and across wider society. Children relate their concept of the passing of time chronologically, marking significant events representing turning points in history using time lines. Their understanding and use of time lines extends to knowing significant periods and civilisations in ancient through to more modern History both within Britain and across the wider world. They understand periods of time fall before and after the birth of Christ (BC and AD), appreciating that this is also referred to by historians as BCE and CE. As their knowledge and understanding of significant historical periods develops, our pupils establish when these existed in time and begin to make comparisons between them seeing patterns in themes such as invasion, monarchy, succession, religion, beliefs and life styles. We make use of local historical sights and periods in Suffolk which form the basis of local study.
What does success look like in learning History?
Pupils have developed and gained an increasingly wider understanding of changes through time within their own locality and local area, within Britain and across the wider world. They will know that time is measured chronologically, includes pre-history, ancient worlds, defined eras and spans periods defined as before and after the birth of Christ, committing significant dates within periods they have studied to memory. Pupils know and understand the complexity of peoples’ lives over different times, places and circumstance and begin to compare them. They understand History as events and changes over time which shape and impact upon the present.
four year cycle ks2 history planning overview.pdf