History at St. Peter’s

At St. Peter’s, our aims, vision and values are at the core of everything we do.

We are guided by the key message of our Mission Statement,

'If we follow Jesus, the world will follow us.'

They define our teaching and learning, and provide an environment which prepares our pupils as confident, capable, resilient and responsible citizens able to enjoy a healthy life to the full.

Our inclusive school community works in partnership to meet the responsibility of developing each child in every way – spiritually, emotionally, academically, physically and socially because each child who is a unique creation of God and loved by God, deserves this.

We deliver the History curriculum through the unique approach of the St. Peter’s Family.

Why is History important at St. Peter’s?

• History provides the context for a child to understand the world in which they live
• It is important to learn from past mistakes and triumphs
• It helps children understand aspects of what it means to be human
• Children learn to appreciate difference and similarity
• History develops a value system and links to British Values
• It develops a sense of continuity and change
• Children learn to appreciate different cultures, periods and time
• It is a core element of cultural capital and hereafter knowledge: an understanding of key historical figures and periods enhances understanding of other academic subjects particularly English
• History develops the social and intellectual skills to analyse and interpret the situations that children find themselves in

What are the key knowledge concepts in History at St. Peter’s?

What are the key History subject discipline skills?

• Sequence events across time
• Develop a sense of chronology (where different events / periods fit in time and different timescales)
• Describe and give reasons for change and continuity
• Find links and patterns
• Compare and contrast
• Develop confidence and precision in use of historical terms and language
• Identify cause and consequence
• Discuss people, events and developments
• Use different sources to research and investigate
• Report findings in different ways
• Question reliability and bias
• Empathy
• Recognise what is significant
• Ask questions and try to answer them with curiosity, empathy and imagination

How does St. Peter’s ensure progression in our key knowledge and concepts in History?

• Curriculum identifies points where comparisons can be made
• Topics start with link to chronology
• Knowledge taught becomes more in depth
• Increasing complexity of language and precision expected
• Children make comparisons across wider times
• Knowledge organisers show precise knowledge children will learn in each topic
• Children develop their knowledge of the past through a range of sources
• Pupils demonstrate their knowledge and understanding as a historian through a project
• Children are able to identify cause and consequence through significant events
• Children understand the significance of events and people in different situations

How do we know our children have made progress?

End points

FS children can:

• Talk about things using the past tense
• Sequence several events chronologically
• Talk about things that happened in the past in their own lives and those of other family members
• Recognise things that are the same and different between the past and now
• Say how they know that something is from the past
• Use language related to the past (yesterday, when I was 3, in the olden days, long ago, about a year ago)

End points

KS1 children can:

• Describe a historical event
• Describe a significant person in the past
• Talk about something that’s happened in the local area
• Say how things were different or the same in the past
• Talk about life in a different era
• Ask and answer questions
• Use precise, topic-specific language
• Place people and/or events in broad periods of time
• Collect information from different sources (objects, pictures, films and age-appropriate books)
• Compare, contrast and describe people, places and objects in the past
• Give simple reasons for events or actions using ‘because’
• Present their findings.

End points

Year 4 Children can:

• Explain why the Romans were important in Britain
• Describe some of the achievements of Ancient Greeks and how they influence today
• Describe the local area in the past and how it has changed
• Place the historical periods studied in chronological order
• Make comparisons, contrasts and links within periods of time
• Ask questions about change and give an example of the consequences
• Give several reasons for why events happened
• Describe similarities and differences within the periods studied
• Combine information from more than one source
• Present findings in extended pieces of work
• Use historical and subject-specific language
• Describes objects in detail and make some inferences and deductions based on their observations
• Recognise that people had different feelings about events in the past.

End points

Year 6 Children can:

• Describe some changes that happened from the Stone Age to the Iron Age and why they were important
• Describe a famous explorer and their achievements and challenges
• Explain what it means to be a citizen of Britain
• Discuss whether Maya were a great civilization referring to some of their achievements and follies
• Sequence events across periods at British, local and world level
• Compare and contrast, including across periods
• Identify trends and patterns and suggests reasons for these
• Explain the significance of people and events
• Select relevant sources
• Take into account bias and credibility of sources
• Empathise and recognise different points of view
• Interpret sources and events and use conjecture
• Written work is structured and detailed and includes technical historical terms and dates
• Present a balanced point of view.

In History lessons, as in all aspects of the curriculum, children are true to their faith. This can be summarised through one line taken from our Mission Statement: ‘We are happy when we do our best in our work and play’.