Intent

At Bakewell Methodist Junior School, we are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities that foster positive and enthusiastic attitudes to understanding about the past and how the past can impact upon the present and future.

History is about real people who lived, and real events which happened in the past; it gives us a sense of identity, set within our unique position in the world. History fires the children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world and plays an essential part in preparing us for living and working in the contemporary world. Pupils consider what past societies were like, how these societies were organised, how their beliefs and cultures influenced actions and the evidence that remains of them. As they do this, children develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. It is about changes that have occurred and the causes and consequences of them. They see the diversity of human experience and understand more about themselves as members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. History encourages critical thinking; enhances a child’s ability to research, gather and reflect upon evidence, reach conclusions, form opinions and develop a sense of perspective. Skills developed through historical enquiry have a wide application to everyday life and historical awareness promotes responsible citizenship, empathy and tolerance.

We aim to:-

• To instil in the children a curiosity and understanding of events, places and people in a variety of times and environments.
• To develop an interest in the past and an appreciation of human achievements and aspirations
• To understand the values of our society
• To learn about the major issues and events in the history of our own country and of the world and how these events may have influenced one another
• To develop a knowledge of chronology within which the children can organise their understanding of the past
• To understand how the past was different from the present and that people of other times and places may have had different values and attitudes from ours
• To understand the nature of evidence by emphasising the process of enquiry and by developing the range of skills required to interpret primary and secondary source materials
• To distinguish between historical facts and the interpretation of those facts
• To understand that events have a multiplicity of causes and that historical explanation is provisional, debatable and sometimes controversial
• To interpret and communicate historical knowledge in a variety of ways, through art and drama as well as the written word.

Implementation

The teaching and implementation of the History Curriculum at Bakewell Methodist Junior School, is based on the National Curriculum, ensuring a clear, comprehensive and well-structured approach to this subject.

History topics are taught three times each year in a two-year cycle.  Teachers plan lessons based on our two-year cycle and our Step in Leaning, Skills and Progression. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.

Using the ‘knowledge categories’, teachers are able to plan links across topics so that children are able to make and understand ‘connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term times scales.’ (NC).  They will also develop their understanding of ‘empire, civilisation. Parliament and peasantry’, through these connections between topics through ‘knowledge categories’.