Intent
At Blakehill we want everyone to have an understanding of their local past, Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We want to inspire curiosity and allow children to communicate and recall knowledge about key events in the past. We want pupils to learn historical skills such as: source work, using timelines, asking and answering questions and making comparisons. Through using these key skills to learn facts, children will develop a love of history and have a thirst for historical knowledge. This in turn will allow children to become historians of the future and understand the complexities of people’s lives, the process of change and the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. Our curriculum constantly evolves to meet the needs of the people (both staff and children) in school by reflecting the changing environment of the outside world, situations addressed in the news and allow children to explore the way this impacts on their lives. We respond to pupil voice and incorporate elements that engage the children in their learning e.g drama and role play.
Implementation
Children are taught a range of topics, with opportunities to explore both modern and ancient history. In all of their learning, we encourage our children to notice and comment on the difference between then and now. The way we have designed our curriculum and deliver new topics is established in relation to periods of history they have already covered. Children use timelines to develop chronological awareness and begin to make links between topics and events in order to notice patterns. Children apply this learning in order to make comparisons between events and topics so that they understand the impact that different historical events had. Children are given the opportunity to ask and answer questions about their topic and use primary and secondary sources to learn key facts and understanding of what it was like during their time period.
In Key Stage 1, children learn key facts about the history of Britain and our local area. They explore important places and people as well as significant events such as The Great Fire of London. Through these topics, our children have the opportunity to visit many places of historical interest such as Skipton Castle and Saltaire as well as make visits to museums in order to expand on the learning they have been doing in the classroom.
In Key Stage 2, our children explore the history of an aspect of our local area in more detail, learn about key events in British history and how that changed the way our country developed as well as learn about the ancient history of Egypt, Greece and the Maya civilisation. Through their learning they participate in role play, benefit from school visits and go on trips to local museums or sites of interest such as: Eden Camp, Danelaw, Yorkshire Coal Mining Museum and Bradford Industrial Museum to enrich their experiences and learning.
Impact
At Blakehill we intend that through history, children will engage with the past and realise how the world they know came about. We give all children the opportunities to investigate the past for themselves and form their own opinions of a time period. We allow children to ask and answer questions and make comparisons to then and now. Children access their history learning through a range of ways including drama and role play. Children are confident to talk about their learning in history and make links to other aspects of life and learning.