Intent
At our Enderby Road Infant School, we aim to inspire curiosity about the past and help children understand how people, events and achievements have shaped the world they live in today. Through a carefully sequenced two-year rolling programme, pupils develop knowledge of local, national and global history, exploring significant individuals, historical events, inventions, exploration and change over time.
Our History curriculum begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage through the understanding of the world area of learning, where pupils develop an understanding of Past and Present. Pupils begin by developing an awareness of themselves, their families, their communities and significant events in their own lives. They learn to talk about what has happened in the past and begin to recognise similarities and differences between past and present.
As pupils move into Key Stage 1 our curriculum is built around key historical concepts, including significance, change, invention, exploration, monarchy, industry and community. Through meaningful enquiry questions, children learn both the substantive knowledge of history (what happened in the past) and the disciplinary knowledge needed to think like historians (how we know about the past).
We want children to develop a sense of place and identity by learning about the history of their local area, including the importance of steel production in Scunthorpe, while also understanding how local stories connect to wider national and global narratives. By studying a diverse range of people and experiences, pupils recognise that individuals can shape history and that the past continues to influence our lives today.
Implementation
In Early Years pupils develop Historical understanding through first hand experiences, family and community discussions, stories and non fiction texts, Photographs and artifacts, visits and visitors, role play and small world activities and comparing past and present.
History is taught through a broad and balanced curriculum delivered through a two-year rolling programme across Key Stage 1. Each unit is structured around an enquiry question and a key historical concept, enabling children to revisit and deepen their understanding of important historical ideas.
The curriculum includes the study of:
- significant individuals who have shaped society, such as healthcare pioneers and monarchs;
- significant events beyond living memory, including the Great Fire of London;
- changes within living memory, such as holidays and transport;
- local history, including Scunthorpe's steel industry and local transport heritage.
Within each unit, substantive knowledge is carefully identified and sequenced alongside disciplinary knowledge. Children are taught to:
- use historical vocabulary accurately;
- place people, events and objects within a simple chronological framework;
- identify similarities, differences, change and continuity;
- ask and answer questions about the past;
- use photographs, artefacts, stories, maps and other sources as evidence;
- consider why people, events and achievements are historically significant.
Chronological understanding is developed progressively across the curriculum, allowing children to build an increasingly secure mental timeline from the Romans and Vikings through to modern Britain. Local history is woven throughout the curriculum to make learning relevant and meaningful, helping children understand how their community contributes to Britain's story.
Impact
By the end of Reception, pupils will have developed an emerging understanding of past and present.
Pupils will be able to: talk about themselves,their families and experiences from their own past. They will recognise that they have changed and grown over time. Pupils will build on vocabulary relating to Past, Present and Now. They will be able to talk about significant events, people and celebrations they have experienced or heard about. Pupils will be able to recognise that some events happened a long time ago and will compare photographs, objects from the past to those of today. They will be able to listen and talk about stories that provide an understanding of the past and begin to develop an understanding of chronology and change over time. Pupils will show curiosity by asking questions about people, objects and events from the past.
Our Early Years curriculum enables pupils to begin to see themselves as part of a wider history and understand that people, places and things change over time.
By the end of Key Stage 1, pupils will have developed a secure foundation of historical knowledge and an understanding of how the past has shaped the present. They will be able to discuss significant people, events and places they have studied and explain why they are important.
Children will use historical vocabulary confidently, recognise change and continuity over time, and place key events and individuals within a simple chronological framework. They will begin to think critically about evidence, asking questions and drawing conclusions from a range of historical sources.
Pupils will leave Key Stage 1 with a growing understanding of their local heritage, an appreciation of Britain's wider history and a curiosity to learn more about the past. They will understand that history is not simply a collection of facts, but a way of understanding how people, communities and societies have changed over time.
Our history curriculum enables children to become curious historians who understand how significant people, events and achievements have shaped their local community, Britain and the wider world.