History

At Grazeley Primary School, we believe that children are entitled to leave primary school with a basic grasp of the broad sweep of British history and an understanding of history across the wider world. We have prioritised learning about significant aspects of several ancient civilisations (and their commonalities and differences) rather than knowing a great deal about just one or two. We plan to show British history and (and to an extent world history) as an interconnected narrative rather than just as discrete topics. The use of the time lines is key here.

Our history curriculum is based on the National Curriculum.

The Reception curriculum provides pupils with stories and rhymes which begin to develop an understanding of chronology. Key Stage 1 is used to introduce children to the basic ideas of history as study of the past, looking at the development over time of certain aspects of society and some influential figures. In Key Stage 2, the curriculum progresses chronologically, from the Stone Age to the modern day. This allows for the repeated retrieval of preceding topics and the cumulative development of a core timeline.

At Grazeley Primary School, history is taught through nine key concepts that repeat throughout the curriculum. (In brackets, are other important related concepts.) These provide lenses through which to consider the different aspects of history.  These are split into the substantive knowledge that children must know and remember and the disciplinary knowledge that they need to understand in order to be historians.

Substantive Knowledge (Golden Threads)

• Society (architecture, art, civilisation, communication, economy, inspiration, myth, nation, religion, settlement, story, trade)
• Hierarchy and power (country, democracy, empire, equality, government, law, monarchy, oppression, parliament, peasantry, politics, prejudice, slavery, poverty, protection, tyranny)
• Civilisations (conflict, disaster, conquest, liberation, occupation, military, peace, plague, surrender, treaty, war)
• Exploration and invention (discovery, migration, navigation, progress, tools)

Disciplinary Knowledge (being a ‘historian’)

• Cause and consequence

Know the relationship in history between an event, a condition, or a decision (the cause) and the events or results that follow it (the consequences).

• Change and continuity (chronology)

Know that in history many things change but that others remain constant.

• Compare and contrast (similarity, difference)

Know the extent and type of difference between people, groups, experiences or places in and between historical periods.

• Artefacts and sources (evidence, interpretation, eye-witness, source)

Know how historians use sources as evidence to construct, challenge or test claims about the past.

• Historical Significance

Know how and why historians ascribe significance to events, trends and individuals.

Cornerstones Curriculum

Our curriculum is based on the Cornerstones Maestro curriculum.  We prioritise the teaching of our nine key concepts when deciding on the aspects of each historic period to focus on.