History at Lordship Lane

Aims

Our history curriculum is designed not only to excite children about history, but also to give them an understanding of the broad chronological sweep of history. We aim not only to build children’s historical knowledge, but also equip them with skills of historical enquiry. Our history curriculum also contributes to our wider aim of ensuring our curriculum represents the diversity of our curriculum: children learn about non-European civilisations as well as the legacy of colonialism.

Curriculum

Our history curriculum is based on that developed by the Haringey Education Partnership, but we have made some changes so that it works well for our school and our community. Generally speaking, children in key stage 1 learn history through themes such as ‘Explorers’ and ‘Monarchs’. In key stage 2, our curriculum is broadly chronological: children study prehistory and ancient civilisations in year 3, classical civilisations in year 4, medieval history in year 5 and more recent history, including an in depth study of London’s history, in year 6.

We have made knowledge builders for each unit of work: this is a sheet containing the historical words and knowledge that children are going to learn in each half term. Your child will bring this sheet home each half term, and it will also be shared on Seesaw.

History Teaching

In Early Years, children learn about history both through free-flow activities and in whole class sessions. Their introduction to history begins with frequent discussions about the past, including conversations about what children can remember.

In key stages 1 and 2, children have two history lessons a week. History lessons are interleaved with geography, so children have learn either history or geography in any given half term. Weekly quizzing helps children to remember what they have learnt over time. Our quizzing also ensures that children do not forget their history learning in those half terms when they are studying geography.

Overview

The table below offers a very broad overview of what children study in history each half term. Geography units have been included for key stages 1 and 2 as, of course, there are links between these two subjects. Our knowledge builders provide much more detail of the content; children will be given these to take home at the beginning of each unit of work.