Introduction

At the Gateway Primary Academy, we recognise the importance of a high-quality history curriculum for all of our pupils. Our history topics form an important part of our topic based curriculum and have been chosen to help our pupils gain ‘a coherent knowledge of Britain’s past and that of the wider world’. Our history curriculum is contextualised to our local area to inspire our pupils’ and make links to their own lives. It is also carefully sequenced into chronological order to develop our pupils sense of chronology. 

National Curriculum

Our history curriculum fulfils the following aims from the National Curriculum:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed History
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

How will my child be introduced to history in the early years?

In EYFS, pupils begin to develop their understanding of history through the different topics we explore each term.  Through the curriculum area of Understanding of the World, pupils are introduced to their immediate history: that of themselves and their families. They look at pictures, photographs, objects or artefacts from their own past or that of recent history. They are encouraged to learn about each other’s past experiences to develop an understanding that everyone’s experience is different.

Historians/Famous figures

Through our history teaching, we learn about what it means to be a historian and why this is an important role. We discuss how to be a good historian and how using a range of sources supports us in our history learning.

Across the school we introduce a range of famous people from history and look at their impact on our lives today.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is carefully for within the history curriculum to ensure it is progressive and provides our pupils with the opportunity to revisit and revise key knowledge. In Year 1 and 2 it  is predominately related to the passing of time and we encourage our pupils to apply this in our English writing lessons. We also introduce key topic vocabulary. In Key Stage 2, we use a range of vocabulary to describe sources and topic linked vocabulary. See our history vocabulary overview.