Our Lady Of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School

History

Our Vision for History
At Our Lady’s we understand that History plays a crucial role in helping children develop a sense of place and identity. We will seek to provide the knowledge and skills required for children to understand the development and changes that have forged modern Britain and the wider world.
Intent
We believe that children should be given a robust sense of chronology; they will have a vision of the timeline, and order of key historical periods by the end of Year 6. We feel that it is crucial that at Our Lady’s we develop a “sense of a time”; that is a visualisation of what different periods were like to live in. A thorough understanding of this will enable children to recognise trends in human development and the human experience, and will equip them to develop their own political and cultural vision. We will endeavour to give pupils the idea of historical coherence – which events lead to others? What trends can we find in History? What values have led to the decisions and lives people have led in the past? In this way, we hope that children learn to understand the consequences of their own actions, along with the actions of societies and nations.
Implementation
To do this, we will use a wide range of sources to engage children, and teach them the value of critical thinking allow them to evaluate how reliable different opinions and versions of events are.
In a modern world where “fake news” is prevalent and pressure is ever-present for young people via social media, it is absolutely vital that children learn how to decide which sources, stories and news they can trust, and to recognise that different people can have different perceptions of one event. Finally, we will ensure that children’s learning has a purpose. This will be through the use of over-arching “enquiry questions” (both within lessons and throughout schemes of work), providing context for learning and skills-based lessons, and by giving children the opportunity to produce and share meaningful end of unit pieces of work (they should be aware of these as the unit progresses).
Impact
Through their study of History, the children will become increasingly critical and analytical within their thinking. They will make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. As they progress through the School, they will become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world they currently live in. They will also have a deeper understanding of History at a local level. The children will develop enquiry skills to pursue their own interests within a topic and further questioning. By ensuring that chronological links are explicitly made through prior learning, the children will be able to make connections between their previous learning and current learning, and will be able to demonstrate a deeper understanding.