Our intentions in History are for children to:

• Dare children to challenge themselves by thinking deeply and critically about past events using multiple sources of evidence. 

• Encourage resilience when analysing different sources of evidence where conclusions aren’t obvious.  

• Stimulate creativity and inquisitiveness through enquiry and exploration. We want pupils to develop the confidence to think critically, ask questions, and be able to explain and analyse historical evidence.

• Empower children to be ambitious, challenging themselves to build up a deep level of substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills 

• Motivate children to be curious and creative thinkers who develop a complex knowledge of local and national history and the history of the wider world. 

Through our scheme of work, we aim to build an awareness of significant events and individuals in global, British and local history and recognise how things have changed over time. 

History will support children to appreciate the complexity of people’s lives, the diversity of societies and the relationships between different groups. 

Studying History allows children to appreciate the many reasons why people may behave in the way they do, supporting children to develop empathy for others while providing an opportunity to learn from mankind’s past mistakes. 

Our scheme of work aims to support pupils in building their understanding of chronology in each year group, making connections over periods of time and developing a chronologically-secure knowledge of History. 

We hope to develop pupils’ understanding of how historians study the past and construct accounts and the skills to carry out their own historical enquiries. In order to prepare pupils for their future learning in History, our scheme aims to introduce them to key substantive concepts including power, invasion, settlement and migration, empire, civilisation, religion, trade, achievements of humankind, society and culture. 

Our History scheme of work enables pupils to meet the end of Key stage attainment targets in the National curriculum and the aims also align with those set out in the National curriculum. For EYFS, the activities allow pupils to work towards the Understanding the world Development matters statements and Early learning goals, while also covering foundational knowledge that will support them in their further history learning in Key stage 1.