History

Purpose of study 

• A high-quality History education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
• It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
• Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
• 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.

Aims

When children leave Norton St Nicholas they will:

• 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 vocabulary
• 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.

What we teach

Early Years

Year 1

 How have schools changed over time?

• Life in England during Victorian times.
• How schools were different in the past.
• What our school was like when it was built and how it has changed over time.

How have toys changed over time?

• How we have changed over time.
• Exploring toys that parent and grandparents played with.
• Similarities and differences with toys in the past.

Year 2

 How did we learn to fly?

• The Wright brothers and the first flight.
• Bessie Coleman's significance in aviation history.
• Amelia Earhart's significance in aviation history.
• The Moon landing.

What happened in London in 1666?

• What London was like in 1666.
• Why the Great Fire of London spread so quickly and stayed alight so long.
• How we know about the Great Fire of London.
• The changes in firefighting from 1666 to today.

Year 3

 Would you prefer to have lived in the Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age?

• Prehistoric man.
• What Skara Brae tells us about life in the Stone Age.
• The Bronze Age Man.
• The impact of bronze in prehistoric Britain.
• How trade changed lives in Iron Age Britain.
• How settlements changed between the Stone Age and Iron Age.

Why did the Romans invade and settle in Britain?

• Life in ancient Rome.
• Why the Romans invaded and settled in Britain.
• How the Britons responded to the Roman invasion.
• Why the Roman army was so successful.
• What artefacts suggest about the lives of Roman soldiers in Britain.
• The legacy of the Roman Empire in Britain.

Year 4

 How hard was it to invade and settle in Britain?

• Who the Anglo-Saxons were.
• Anglo-Saxon settlements.
• What Sutton Hoo tells us about Anglo-Saxon life.
• The arrival of Christianity in Britain.
• King Alfred the Great.
• The end of Anglo-Saxon rule.

What was important to ancient Egyptians?

• The first civilisations and how we know about them.
• The importance of the River Nile to ancient Egyptians.
• How we know so much about the ancient Egyptians.
• What sources suggest about religious beliefs in ancient Egypt.
• Ancient Egyptian beliefs about what happened after death.
• The rulers of ancient Egypt and what happened to them when they died.

Year 5

 Were the Vikings raiders, traders or something else?

• When and why the Vikings came to Britain.
• Where the Vikings went and how they got there.
• Why Viking sagas explain the same event in different ways.
• The impact of Viking raids and settlements on local communities in Britain.

What is the legacy of the ancient Greek civilisation?

• Who the ancient Greeks were and where they lived.
• Ancient Greek beliefs.
• Ancient Greek governance.
• How Greek philosophers influence us today.
• The legacy of ancient Greek civilisation today.

Year 6

 What was life like in Tudor Britain?

• Exploring if Henry VIII was a fair ruler or tyrant.
• Why Henry VIII had so many wives.
• The execution of Anne Boleyn.
• How Queen Elizabeth I used a royal progress.
• What inventories tell us about life in Tudor times.
• The inventory of John Blanke.

What was the impact of World War 2 on the people of Britian?

• Why Britain went to war in 1939.
• The Battle of Britain.
• What sources tell us about the Blitz.
• Evacuation and what it was like for children.
• The impact World War 2 had on women's lives.