History

History at St Anne’s

‘You are the light of the world’.

At St Anne’s CE Primary School, our mission is to meet the unique needs of all pupils in creating a curriculum that encourages children to flourish academically, socially and spiritually and become resilient learners of history. Our core values, particularly Respect, Courage and Wisdom, will be used to encourage children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.  The curriculum should nurture the children’s natural curiosity and love of learning so that they, not only, know more about the past but gain an understanding of 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.

Pupils are encouraged to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of local, British and world history. The substantive knowledge taught has been carefully chosen and sequenced using a largely chronological approach; each unit of work is a chapter in the story of the history of Britain and the wider world. Adopting a chronological approach, provides a solid framework to anchor each unit to within the wider narrative. Substantive concepts and disciplinary concepts have been interwoven across the curriculum, to allow children to encounter and apply these in different contexts, make connections across periods of time and build upon prior knowledge and skills.

The curriculum aims to help children understand how the past is constructed and contested. Children begin by learning about what a historian does, looking at basic sources and simplified perspectives to develop an appreciation and understanding of what it means to be a historian. Disciplinary concepts, such as continuity and change, cause and consequence and similarity, difference and significance, are explored in every unit, and children are supported to think outside of their current unit of work and apply these concepts across the curriculum.

The curriculum aspires to create curious and knowledgeable young people with a love for history. The units have been carefully chosen to cover as wide-ranging content as possible from ancient civilisations and prehistoric Britain to the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement; from looking at law and power across the ages to the impacts of industrialisation and technological advances; from understanding invasion and migration, exploitation and political movements for freedom and equality. The curriculum aims to introduce the children to a wide variety of men, women and children from the past; from the widely venerated, to the lives of the less well-known who offer us a rich insight into life at the time.

We believe that through these opportunities’ children will reach their full potential and become confident, lifelong learners of History who will shine in the world.

‘History is who we are and why we are the way we are’.

David McCullough, American Historian.