History
OVERVIEW
In school we will help all children to develop an understanding of time, place, people and events through the effective teaching and learning of the knowledge skills and understanding of history. We will use the National Curriculum History Guidelines as the basis for our scheme of work and we will make meaningful links with the other subjects of the curriculum. Our aim is to ignite a curiosity to learn about the past that will help children understand who they are and how their environment and the world has changed over time.
Aims - Intent
- To help all children develop a sense of the past and to develop a chronological framework for learning about life in past times.
- To enable children to learn about famous people and their impact on our lives.
- To develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the growth and development of our nation and its relationship with the rest of the world with a particular focus on our locality.
- To develop children’s skills as historians to enable them to research and discover the past.
STRATEGIES - Implementation
- We will begin the teaching of history in Foundation Stage as the children begin developing their knowledge skills and understanding of the world by starting with the most recent past. We will use photographs, artefacts, visits out into the locality, and by talking to older people about ‘then and now’
- As the children move into Key Stage 1 they will build on their earlier work using ‘living memory’, eye-witness accounts’ and the immediate environment of the school and the local area as their starting point.
- As they become older the children will learn about at least one of the different periods of history set out in the history guidelines of the National Curriculum. These will be linked to the local area where possible and the impact that this has had on our lives today.
- Strong links will be made with the teaching of English through the texts that we use and the writing experiences that the children have with a historical context.
- History will become a stimulus and a springboard for the development of oracy, writing and for the development of thinking and reasoning skills.
- Through the well planned topics for each year group, the history will link to as many areas of the curriculum as possible enabling children to make links in their learning. The topic based curriculum will allow the history curriculum to be taught in depth.
- On every appropriate occasion teachers will use first-hand experience, visits, visitors, artefacts and the local and wider environment to engage children’s interest and imagination and provide rich and memorable experiences.
- Through their understanding of the past and of lives in different conditions children will be encouraged to develop their feelings and ‘empathy’ for others.
- Through their understanding of the past children will be helped to develop an understanding of their identity as a British citizen and learn about the diverse world that they are part of.
- Children will learn about development of democracy, our government, the Monarchy, citizenship, and the Law. They will learn about rights and responsibilities, moral, social and environmental issues.
OUTCOMES - Impact
History will be fun. It will be used to promote excellence and enjoyment; it will have a strong presence in the ethos of the school through displays, performances, music, drama and assemblies. The well thought out curriculum will ensure progression across year groups and the development of skills and knowledge for every child.
Year 1 trip - May 2025
Year 1 have been learning all about Children's Lives in the Past. To support their understanding, we took a fantastic trip to Portland Basin Museum and learnt lots more about toys, houses and schooling.
VE Day - May 2025
On Thursday 8th May, we marked VE Day across school. Children came dressed in red, white and blue, proudly showing their colours as they learned about the significance of Victory in Europe Day. We enjoyed a special 1940s-style school dinner, just like families might have eaten at the end of World War II. Pupils took part in a range of themed activities and even created a huge VE Day picture using their colourful clothes, crouching together to form a red, white and blue display!
Year 4 Mummification - April 2025
Year 4 have been learning about mummification in their history topic, the Ancient Egyptians. We created our own natron and mummified an apple. We left some pieces of apple uncovered and we will be comparing the results.
Year 6 War Veterans - March 2025
Year 6 had a special visit from some of the members of Stockport Veterans Society who shared their real-life and personal experiences of what life was like for them and their families during World War 2. The information they shared was fascinating and it gave us a better understanding of what life was like during the early 1940s.
Year 6 Stockport Air Raid Shelter trip - March 2025
Year 6 have been on a wonderful visit to Stockport Air Raid Shelter to learn more about what life was like for evacuees during World War Two. The whole experience was so realistic that it felt like stepping back in time. It was a very educational visit which helped us to understand more about the history of our local area.
Our School Timeline
We are very lucky to have a large timeline on one of our corridors. This includes all of the World and British history as well as local history information. The children will be using this to develop their understanding of chronology in their history work. The children are excited to use this resource and have been keen to look for information from their previous topics.
Displays Around School
Denton West End turns 90!
We had several celebration during the school's 90th birthday year. The children enjoyed tasting food from the 1930's, learning about music through the decades and we finished off with a 1930's school experience. These real life experiences have been invaluable for the children's understanding of the past.
