History

The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.

Theodore Roosevelt

Learning about the past

Learning about history topics at Brooklands can be great fun. Children are inspired to research events, they love thinking about people of the past, and especially enjoy all the bits that are gory, nasty or just plain mad!

History in the National Curriculum can be summed up in just a few statements: ordering events in time; finding differences and similarities; writing and talking about the past; using different sources for information; asking and answering questions. All classes in each year group will do all of these at some point and aim to link ‘then’ with ‘now’.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

The early learning goals at EYFS are very much focused on the memories of the child. It may be that they are asked to remember a special event or routine or custom for their family. They may talk about differences between different family members or different generations.

Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

At Key Stage 1, children may be asked to learn about specific people or events that are both within and beyond living history. Pupils learn about different people like Neil Armstrong or Tim Peake, Grace Darling, or Florence Nightingale. Events such as the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight, or themes such as castles or toys lend themselves very well to learning about the past. There will often be a very strong link to a local event or person.

Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)

At Key Stage 2, the curriculum is much more prescriptive. Your child will learn all about the following periods of British history over the 4 years in Key Stage 2.

• Stone Age
• Ancient Romans
• Anglo Saxons and Scots
• The Vikings
• A local history unit
• A period of history later than 1066 (e.g. World War 2, Victorians, Tudors, the 1960s).

Children will also be introduced to some world civilisations in History:

• Ancient Greeks
• Ancient Egyptians or Ancient Shang dynasty of China or the Indus Valley
• The Mayans or Islamic Civilisation or Benin (AD 900-1300) to contrast with British history

History at Brooklands

• We see the value of visits and visitors in history topics to enrich pupils’ lives.

• We devise our curriculum so it is relevant to the pupils and acknowledges that they come from a diverse range of backgrounds so we can reflect and celebrate these.

• We have history displays both in and outside the classroom that are either supporting or celebrating learning. We have timelines in our classrooms. 

• We use a broad variety of teaching approaches across topics and within lessons to ensure all pupils are catered for and engaged.

• We provide pupils with feedback that focuses on the history objectives. 

• Our teachers are creative about ways to ensure history is not neglected and progress lost at those times when it is not formally taught. 

• We encourage pupils to work as historians and aim to give them a strong understanding of what is history. We expect pupils of all abilities to be able to interrogate a number of pieces of evidence to reach conclusions and be able to justify their reasoning.