History in Chinley Primary School aims to be lively, interesting and relevant, taught sometimes as a discrete subject or within an integrated topic approach, linking with Geog, Literacy, Maths, IT, PHSE, art, drama, dance and music. Many topics have the starting point as good-quality literacy books to inspire and inform pupils.
In EYFS (Nursery and Reception), ‘Understanding the World’ strand is covered through an integrated topic approach, which encourage the children to make sense of their physical world, their community and the past. They gradually gain experience of the world around them, which is enhanced by stories, non-fiction, rhymes, poems and songs to foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. Talking about their experiences encourages them to think about some of the similarities and differences between objects and life in the past compared to now.
In KS1 pupils are introduced to timelines and chronologically sequencing events. They find answers to some simple questions about the past from simple sources of information, and learn about some significant historical individuals and events, ancient civilizations and their achievements.
A chronological approach is taken in KS2, starting with the Stone Age and continuing through to 1066, covering both Britain and other world civilizations. This includes 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, their achievements and downfalls. An extended chronological study post-1066 of World War Two is covered in Y6. Historical concepts include continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and pupils can use these to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analysis. They are taught to understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence can be used to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
