History at Earlswood...

At The Federation of Earlswood Schools, we provide a varied history curriculum that covers many time periods up until the current day. Our curriculum explores different time periods in specific year groups to provide learning opportunities that are exciting, engaging and appropriate to the age range, as well as allowing children to further their understanding of historical contexts and apply prior learning to new time periods.  The topics selected for each year group lend themselves to the specific skills taught in that year group and the progression of these skills.  

Within our teaching of history, we aim to provide children with essential and transferable skills that will enhance their future school careers and beyond. Our curriculum inspires children to develop a sense of curiosity about life in historical time periods and then use this to understand aspects of life today. Each lesson gives opportunities for children to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate aspects from the past. This, in turn, encourages children to create and refine their own questions and follow a line of enquiry to seek an explanation. 

Our history curriculum encourages a sense of independence and initiative as the children enhance their decision making and judgement skills. It provides a necessary context from which they can truly understand themselves and others. Our children thrive through our teaching of history because it stops being something that happened thousands of years ago and becomes something important to them today.

The teaching of history aims to incorporate mastery skills and develop oracy through the verbalisation of explanations, sharing ideas with peers and increasing drama opportunities within the history curriculum.  

Through teacher assessment, the children’s understanding and misconceptions are identified and targeted within the lesson. This is done through many pedagogical techniques including further challenge and deep questioning for talented pupils and additional support when needed.  Children are given a number of experiences through a range of trips, workshops and visitors.

By the end of Year 6, we want our children to have a sound understanding of chronology and the ability to apply this to a range of historical events, the skill to interpret and investigate a range of primary and secondary historical evidence, and to be able to ask and interpret questions.