History

At Chalfont St Peter Infant School, we aim to provide high-quality History education which will enable pupils to gain knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Children are encouraged to develop curiosity to know more about the past. Children are given every opportunity to understand the challenges of the lives of people in the past and the process of change. Pupils are taught to develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.

Intent:

To ignite pupils’ desire to understand more about our past, both nationally and globally.

For our children to have enquiring minds, feeling confident to ask questions and analyse as historians and, to have a thirst to dig deeper to enhance their understanding.

To equip children with knowledge and understanding about significant events in British history, and to appreciate how things have changed over time

To develop a sense of chronology

To help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage

To develop in children the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.

To make meaningful links to prior learning and ensure that our pupils can build on what they know and understand from one year to the next.

Implementation:

We have developed in our ‘Destinations’ curriculum, an enquiry-focussed approach to learning about the past, which develops our children as young historians. This enables our pupils to build their subject knowledge and understanding, but also to become increasingly adept at critical thinking and use of specialised vocabulary.

We aim for our teaching and learning in History to be interactive and practical, allowing opportunities for pupils to work independently as well as in groups, using indoor and outdoor environments to work and learn.

We supplement the curriculum in History with opportunities to explore artefacts and to make visits – both real and virtual.

We encourage visitors to come into school and share their knowledge and experiences of the past.

We recognise and value the importance of stories and other texts to learn about history and to inspire interest in the past.

We help children to also develop critical enquiring minds, understanding that historical events can be interpreted in different ways. We encourage confidence to respectfully as searching questions such as ‘How do we know?’

Impact:

Learning walks and governor visits show how much children enjoy learning about the past through the topics we study. As young learners they are beginning to understand the importance of being Historians, and examining evidence from the past with a critical and enquiring mind.

Throughout the topic, teachers observe pupils, set a range of assessment opportunities and examine contributions to group work, to enable them to make a best fit judgement in relation to their achievement in History. This forms the basis of planning for the class moving forwards, addressing gaps in learning and adapting content and experiences to ensure coverage, ‘stickiness’ of knowledge and breadth of understanding.