We believe that, through the study of history, children make sense of their world, begin to make links between facts and their knowledge, and enrich their understanding of it. We aim for an ambitious, high quality history curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
We want children to enjoy and love learning about history by gaining this knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits. Fundamental in the intent of the curriculum is the sequence in which history is taught. Through carefully planned units, children are able to build upon previous topics, and make links between periods. We believe this is important to enable children to gain a deeper understanding of the chronology of events. This enables children to understand the wider aspects of events of the past and discover a sense of identity and cultural understanding based on their historical heritage.
Miss N Fleming
Miss Fleming is the subject leader for History. She is passionate about children learning from first hand experiences and believes that, through the study of history, children can begin to develop an understanding of the world in which they live. She believes that encouraging children to ask and answer those ‘bigger’ questions will enable them to gain a sense of the world around them. It is through these experiences that they will begin to make links with previously taught units to further inspire and promote curiosity into our own heritage.
Miss Fleming wants children to enjoy and love learning and regularly arranges field trips to provide first hand opportunities to handle artefacts; listen to people who experienced events first hand and provide opportunities to question people who are specialists in their knowledge of history.
Intent – What Do We Aspire For Our Children?
Our Curriculum Intent for History
At OLSA, we provide a high-quality history curriculum that has been carefully designed and sequenced to equip our children with a secure, coherent knowledge about British, local and world history. Underpinning each concept is a firm reliance upon children’s knowledge of chronology. Curriculum content is knowledge, vocabulary and experience rich, delivered in a sequenced chronological order, allowing children to develop their understanding of abstract historical concepts as they move through school. Wherever possible, the curriculum reflects our locality and endeavours to ensure children are knowledgeable about their locality’s history and the changes it has seen both in terms of events and significant individuals. Our history curriculum promotes curiosity and a love for learning about the past. Through an enquiry based approach, children are encouraged to ask and explore historically valid questions and report their findings by drawing on skills from across the curriculum.
Alongside the development of substantive knowledge, children will develop their disciplinary skills as they learn the fundamental elements of what it is to be a historian. Children will study a range of cultures and historical perspectives enabling them to be respectful, tolerant and empathetic, linking in key British Values. We aspire that children will move on from OLSA being knowledgeable about key people, events and time periods from the past and will weave these together to form informed, overarching historical narratives.
Key Vocabulary:
Vocabulary is extremely important when exploring history. Children will encounter a variety of terms that will be repeated through each unit and through each year for familiarity:
Empire, Conflict, Trade, Economy, Pioneer, Civilisation
Policy & Learning Journeys
Useful Links