Statement of Intent

At St Laurence’s our aim is to inspire all children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Children reflect on historical events and build conclusions about how the events of the past effect present day. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Our history curriculum facilitates chronological awareness of events as well as their significance, duration and the events that happened around them. We also teach them to explore, uncover and interpret sources through enquiry to create their own conclusions about events. We encourage children to take views, ask critical questions and take on board others opinions, to weigh up evidence and deepen their curiosity to learn more.  History is enhanced through visitors and educational trips to bring it to life! 

Aims

The National Curriculum for History aims to ensure that all pupils:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.