The History curriculum at Gilberdyke will inspire curious learners who develop a keen interest (and empathy) for events and people from the past, the causes/motivations and reasons our world has been, and continues to be, shaped and viewed as a result.
At Gilberdyke, we will deliver a high-quality history education (informed by the history National Primary Curriculum, 2014) with carefully chosen topics, content, details and breadth to ensure pupils acquire a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past both in Britain and the wider ancient civilisations. It will develop pupils’ chronological knowledge of periods in history to enable them to organize their learning into coherent narratives.
The curriculum aims to develop pupils’ skills in thinking and acting like historians to ensure that they not only acquire historical knowledge, but also that they can research, analyse and deduce inferences from a range of historical sources as well as construct accounts of the past through specific examples. Pupils will acquire coherent knowledge and understanding of the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups in the past. They will use this knowledge to analyse how the past has, and is, shaping the world and their lives today. Pupils will be taught to ask questions, think critically, weigh up the evidence given and develop their own perspective and judgement. Children will learn about local history, for example the rural context and progression of farming in the village as well as studies of their city, Hull, in addition to significant national and global events. Local visits and field trips will be promoted and will be used to provide deeper learning opportunities for the children, enabling them to apply the knowledge they have gained.
The substantive knowledge that has been selected in Gilberdyke’s history curriculum provides specific information, facts, dates and events for that period as well as related vocabulary. In order to establish coherent narratives and schema for pupils, the focus for each unit is based around one of these four key concepts which are revisited throughout their history journey from EYFS to Y6:
1. Ordinary lives (daily life, homes etc.)
2. Conflict & Invasion
3. Power and monarchy
4. Economy (trade, jobs, technological advancement)
To support how we teach children to think and work like historians, each unit of work is carefully chosen to focus on one or more of the key disciplinary concepts:
1. Cause and consequence
2. Similarity and Difference
3. Continuity and Change
4. Significance
In KS1 and 2, History is taught every term over a 6/7 week teaching sequence to ensure that concepts are visited often and regularly.
The whole school history overview ensures children begin their history journey in EYFS by looking at personal and generational history, including some significant figures before moving to history beyond their living memory.
In KS1, children build on this and initially study local and contextual progress/individuals: farming and Amy Johnson. This is to support children’s contextual understanding before applying their understanding to more national/global events and individuals, such as Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London, ‘Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his architectural advances as well as seaside holidays and how they differed in Victorian era. Most the history curriculum for key stage one is focussed around the Victorian era, including Queen Victoria/industrial revolution up to the present day, building a breadth of knowledge about this time period with clear threads that underpin the historical journey they will undertake in key stage two.
In KS2, children gain a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives through key threads of knowledge. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece and the Mayans. Deeper historical studies take place in UKS2 that are routed in familiar time periods such as: Slavery and World War 11.
Outcomes evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Emphasis is placed on analytical thinking and questioning which helps pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and are curious to know more about the past. Through this study pupils learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
