Intent
At Seaton Sluice First School, we value our high-quality history curriculum. A purposeful history education allows children to understand the wider world through studying past societies and events. We know that having a rich and broad history curriculum enables children to understand the present by learning about the past. History at SSFS allows children to ask perceptive questions, think critically and develop their own judgement. Our children are taught about a range of complex and different societies and thus are encouraged to think deeply about their own identities. Our history curriculum is driven by our curriculum drivers and key concepts.
Implementation
Understanding our place in the world
To understand why we live as we do today, we must look to the past. Therefore, learning about how our society has developed over time can help children comprehend their place in the world. Furthermore, at SSFS, we place a strong emphasis on learning about the history of our local area. Exploring the history of their locality makes the learning for the children tangible and exciting. We also understand the importance of a history curriculum that encompasses local, national and international history. Ensuring that our curriculum explores all three is vital to a rich history education as it allows the children to make important connections and comparisons across world history. In turn, providing the children with the knowledge to understand where they fit within the wider world.
Aspiring to achieve
Learning about incredible historical figures ensures the children at SSFS have high aspirations and feel inspired during their history lessons. At SSFS, we know that having a wide range of role models is extremely important as it means every child can see themselves in a successful historical figure. In turn, this allows all children to feel that their dreams are achievable because someone similar to them has done it before. Furthermore, we take pride in our Black History Month and look forward to celebrating International Women’s Day. Both these events, allow children access to a variety of inspiring historical figures.
Broadening horizons
Our history curriculum aims to develop curiosity and enthusiasm about British and world history. At SSFS, the children are exposed to a wide variety of historical societies, ranging from The Victorians to the Ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the children’s horizons are broadened at every opportunity in history by exploring the achievements of different civilisations.
Key Concepts
Empire
At SSFS Primary School, we have three historical concepts that are woven through our history curriculum. Empire is an extremely important concept because it is integral to British and world history. Empire is an abstract idea and hard to comprehend. Therefore, we introduce this concept slowly and carefully. In KS1, we begin by identifying the British monarchy and what it means to be a ruler of one country. In KS2, we begin to explore why countries, civilisations and rulers have felt the need to expand their empire’s. Furthermore, as the children progress through the school they begin to develop their understanding of empire and are able to apply it to the historical periods that they are studying.
Innovation
History has been driven by innovation and we believe it is important that our children recognise this. In each era that they study, children will be able to identify how the innovations of the time affected and changed society. In turn, this allows the children to assess the impact of new inventions and consider how new technologies may affect and change our society today.
Civilisation
Our final historical concept is civilisation. At SSFS, the children are exposed to a wide variety of civilisations. We believe this is key to expanding their understanding of the world. Therefore, the children learn about British, European and wider world civilisations during their time at SSFS. This enables children to make effective comparisons between the civilisations they study because as they move through school, they gain a greater understanding of how different people have lived during history. The children are able to evaluate what makes a civilisation successful by drawing on their knowledge of the civilisations they have studied. Furthermore, they can link this to their own civilisation, in order to asses how they can make their world a better place.