History plays a vibrant part in our school curriculum because it is very popular with all our pupils. We aim to inspire their curiosity so that our pupils are actively involved in their learning. Our curriculum provides our pupils with a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We want them to develop a clear historical perspective so that they can piece together their growing knowledge and fit it into different contexts. In this way they learn to appreciate how people and events in the past have shaped the way that we live now. Our history curriculum is further enriched through regular opportunities for all of our pupils to visit museums and sites of historical significance and to take part in workshops led by specialised visitors to our school.
At Key Stage 1 we value the importance of stories in our history teaching. Pupils listen and respond to stories and use sources of information to help them ask and answer questions. They learn how the past is different from the present. Our pupils handle artefacts and pictures so that they begin to build a visual memory bank of the past and use simple historical words and phrases.
At Key Stage 2, as our pupils continue to build their knowledge and understanding of the past, they also learn to become more critical thinkers. They learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways and so they develop their ability to investigate and reflect on different versions of events. They confidently begin to pose and investigate their own questions about the past and they share their ideas in many creative ways including writing, art, drama and ICT.
A high-quality history education will help the pupils at Christ Church gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire our pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip our pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps our pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
The National Curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:
Please click here to visit our History Blog Page.