History, at Stenson Fields Primary school, forms an integral part of the curriculum. We believe the study of history inspires children’s curiosity, encourages them to ask critical questions and enables them to have a better understanding of Britain and the wider world. Through the teaching of history, we endeavour to teach children to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups as well as understand their own identity and the challenges of their time.

In order to maximise the children’s enjoyment of history, the National Curriculum requirements are taught through engaging and relevant topics.  We feel that not only does this further increase the children’s enjoyment of the subject but it enables the children to make connections more easily with other areas of learning. We have detailed below an overview of what your child will expect to learn in history within each key stage. For information on the topics that this content will be taught through, please see the yearly overview for your child’s year group.

In Key Stage 1 children will develop an awareness of the past. They will learn about significant individuals who have contributed to national and international achievements. They will study changes within living memory as well as events beyond living memory that are nationally or globally significant such as The Great Fire of London. Their learning will be placed within a chronological framework.

In Key Stage 2 children will continue to appreciate history in a chronological context. They will develop a secure understanding of British, local and world history. For example, in lower key stage 2 they will study periods such as the Stone age to Iron age and the Romans, whilst in upper key stage 2 they will study the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings and World Wars one and two. Children will consider connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They will also learn to understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of different sources and spend time looking at, and dealing with, different sources.

Where possible, both key-stages will incorporate the history of the local area enabling children to develop an understanding of the rich history of their locality.