History

CURRICULUM INTENT STATEMENT

At Malmesbury Park, we want our children to love history, encouraging them to develop a life-long interest and curiosity in the past. Through the teaching of History, we develop the skills of enquiry, investigation and analysis, stimulating children’s interest in and understanding of the life of people who lived in the past. Gaining a sense of chronology, supports the development of cultural understanding and identity based on their historical heritage, enabling children to learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain. The History curriculum makes all children aware of the actions of important people in history and enables children to know about significant events in British history, whilst appreciating how things have changed over time. History ensures our children understand how Britain developed as a society, contributing to their understanding of their country of residence. Furthermore, by learning about aspects of local, British and Ancient history, children gain an awareness and knowledge of historical development in the wider world. We believe that by allowing children to understand the importance and enjoyment of history through different opportunities, they will become enthused learners in History.

Aims:

• 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 humanity.
• 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.