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History

Rationale

At Holy Trinity C of E Primary School we aim to give children the opportunity to develop their sense of identity through learning about the development of Britain, Europe and the wider world. We want our pupils to explore past and present civilisations and people. At Holy Trinity we aim to bring history alive by immersing the children through interactive workshops, school trips and inspiring, cross-curricular lessons. We aim to show the children how history has shaped our lives. As members of a community, we need to enable children to make sense of the world in which they live and help them to understand the present in the light of the past.

Intent

At Holy Trinity we aim to follow the National Curriculum History programmes of study in Key Stage 1 and 2. We also aim to build on children knowledge is small steps and their skills will progress throughout the years.

Chronological understanding - During the early stages of Key Stage 1 children will sequence events in their life and by the end of Key Stage 2 the children will place current study on their timeline in relation to other studies. Children will use a range of historical knowledge to recognise and compare the differences between past and present. They will then go on to investigate the causes of why events happened and then the impact it had on people.

Children will investigate reliable historical evidence and then use this to compare accounts of events from different sources. They will also closely examine the difference between fact and fiction and inspect primary and secondary sources.

At Holy Trinity we strongly encourage the children to ask questions, this is also linked to Leader in Me. They will then use evidence to build up a picture of a past event and establish how this is linked to today.

Year 1- Memory box, Moon Zoom and Bright lights and big cities

During the Autumn term children take a trip to the past to discover what life was like at the time when they were born. They will find out how babies change and grow over time. Thinking about their own childhoods, they will use photos and objects from the past to help them remember special times including weddings and christenings. The children talk about their families and share happy memories of people or pets who are no longer alive. Learning about the days, weeks and months of the year will help the children work out how long they have to wait for their birthdays to arrive! The children will decide how objects from the past were used and have fun learning games, songs and dances from bygone days.

During the summer term the children travel through space to learn about the Solar System. Within this topic the children use books and photographs to help them learn about the first lunar landing and the astronauts who venture into space.

The children then go on to learn about The Great Fire of London during the Bright Lights and Big Cities topic. They also explore our Queen, Elizabeth II and discuss her monarchy and the important jobs that she does. They are also invited to a special, royal garden party to celebrate the monarch's long and magnificent reign.

Year 2- Towers, tunnels and turrets, Street Detectives and Land Ahoy

During the Autumn term, the children learn all about the different parts of a castle and describe how they have changed over time. Using a wide range of materials, they will build models of castles and test the strength of their structures. Maps and photographs will help them learn about the tallest buildings and the longest tunnels in the world. They will go on to study the amazing Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Within the Street Detectives topic the children investigate photographs to spot any similarities and differences between the houses and shops of today and the past. The children find out about the history of our school and talk to former pupils about their experiences.

During the Land Ahoy topic the children learn about historical people, Captain James Cook and Grace Darling.

Year 3- Gods and Mortals and Tribal Tales

During this topic the children learn about Ancient Greece and the Greek Gods. The children mainly learn about the Gods through Greek Myths. They also have a visit from the Greek Theatre and enjoy a Greek day.

During the spring term the children learn about the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They investigate people’s daily lives and discover what epic battles they fought.

Year 4- I am Warrior and Traders and Raiders.

During this term, the children are divided into two warring groups: the Celts and the Romans.

The children research Celtic and Roman and compare Britain (the home of the Celts) and Rome (the home of the Romans).

As part of the Traders and Raiders topic the children will start by making sturdy boats to sail the ocean’s fearsome waves. They will write reports as an onlooker who witnessed the Saxons’ landing, and find out about key dates. Using online maps, they plot the location of Roman shore forts and draw their own sketch maps. The children learn about the Legend of King Arthur, and write character portraits about Alfred the Great. The children learn about the everyday lives of the Saxons and Vikings.

Year 5- Egyptians, Peasants, Princes and Pestilence and Off with her head.

The children learn first-hand about the gruesome, yet fascinating, process of mummification. They go on to write a report about Howard Carter’s famous discovery and use different sources to research Tutankhamun’s tomb. They will consider whether it was right to open Tutankhamun’s tomb, or whether it should have been left as it was. The children learning will inspire them to write some exciting Egyptian mystery stories and non-fiction books and the internet will provide them with information to make fact files. The children study Egyptian artefacts in detail, focusing on symbols and design features. Studying historical sources will help them learn more about the Pharaohs, the Egyptian gods and ancient religious beliefs.

The children will use a range of source materials to research the symptoms of the Black Death. Their geography skills will help them understand how the black death came to Britain and why it spread so quickly. The children learn about different social classes, understand the reasons for the Peasants’ Revolt, take part in a mock battle and learn what it was like to be a knight.

Online research will help children write biographies about influential people of the tudor period, and the children will use source materials to create a Tudor timeline. Tudor portraits will provide children with the inspiration to create royal paintings. Geography skills will help the children to compare maps of Tudor London to present day London and plot Anne Boleyn’s journey to her execution. Internet research will help the children learn more about Henry’s life, his marriages and his break from the Roman Catholic church.

Year 6- Hola Mexico, WW1, Coal mining and Victorians

During the Hola Mexico topic children read Maya myths and legends, and write their own. Using maps, the children locate Mexico and explore its natural features. They go on to discover what daily life is like and how it has changed over time.

Fallen Fields

Known as 'the war to end all wars' the First World War was a conflict that had a devastating effect on millions of people across the world. Children will investigate who started this global tragedy? What was life like for families on the home front as they waited for news of loved ones who were 'missing in action'? How did the soldiers endure the terrible conditions in the trenches? How was a fragile peace finally achieved?

Firedamp and Davy Lamps

In this project, children will explore; the history of coal mining, mining strikes and their effects on the miners, their families and communities and the legacy and future of coal mining. This is strongly linked the year 6 residential trip to Shropshire.

Victorians

During this topic the children study various aspects of Victorian life. They begin by studying Queen Victoria I. They then go on to investigate the effects of changes in industry, especially factories. The children compare town life to in the countryside at this time. They go on to investigate the main changes in transport and what effects did they have on the lives of rich and poor. They finally go on to discover school life for rich and poor.

Implementation

In early years the children talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society. They know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class. They also understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.

During Key Stage 1 and 2, children follow a topic based curriculum called ‘Cornerstones’. The Cornerstones Curriculum is a broad and balanced, knowledge and skills based curriculum.

Each new topic begins with a memorable experience. This could be a trip, workshop, visitor coming in. For example in Year 5 the ‘Pharaohs’ topic begins with a mummification where a body is embalmed ready to go to the afterlife. In Year 3 during the ‘Tribal Tales’ topic an archaeological dig takes place.