History at Griffe Field is an exciting and interesting subject full of discovery and fun. Children start in the foundation stage focusing on the Early Learning Goal, “ Past and Present” in the ‘Understanding the World’ Area of Learning and move on from there. It is our intention to allow the children to understand how the past is relevant to them, even from a young age.
During the time the children are in KS1 they learn about significant people like Queen Elizabeth I and II, Florence Nightingale amongst others. KS1 children also learn about events beyond living memory – for example our Year 2 students love the cause-and-effect learning about The Great Fire Of London. In KS2, the children learn about groups of people affecting Great Britain in a chronological way; in Year 3 they find out about the Stone Age, by Year 6 they are taught about World War II. As a school, we found that teaching in such a way helps the children with the tricky concepts of eras and elapsed time. This is reinforced with a time-line of Historical events studied here displayed in the hall and replicated in all classrooms, in addition to being on all knowledge organisers too. This allows children to identify links between their prior knowledge and where there learning is going in the future. The examples are bountiful, for example, the KS1 children can see where the ‘significant individuals’ they study fit into the eras studied in KS2. In our ‘famous mathematicians’ quiz for Maths Day, the children could see where the mathematicians slotted on the timeline in the hall.
History is taught in a dynamic way, making many strong cross-curricular links with ICT, Literacy, Art and Music plus other subjects links, too. Lessons are brought to life through role play, investigation, child-chosen research. The children benefit from visits to other places – sites like Creswell Crags, Beaumanor Hall and visits around Derby linked to our whole school summer term work on ‘The Derby Project’. These visits in particular allow the children in all stages to be aware of and subsequently proud of the history on the doorstep in the Midlands.
Classes regularly demonstrate their knowledge and enjoyment of History in class assemblies, shared with parents to allow parents to see what their children have learnt, where they are going with their learning and what other family opportunities they could make.
History Subject Leader