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History

At The Lea we aim for children to develop a good knowledge of historical topics and gain an appreciation and understanding of history and how it has both shaped and influenced our world, locally and worldwide.

Through the study of individuals, societies, cultures and countries within which they live – and those within the wider world – History enables pupils to gain awareness of what happened in the past and reasons for these events. History helps our children understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, diversity of societies, the relationships between different groups as well as the changes and challenges of their own time. At The Lea, we teach History through a series of questions that promote Disciplinary Knowledge/Thinking. The children learn through linked up teaching and exposure to a wealth of enrichment activities.

Children learn to ask questions, research evidence and use secondary sources of information, such as photographs and books, to gain knowledge. They have access to historical artefacts in the classroom during historical enquiry to help them to reach their own conclusions about the past. Classes have the opportunity to learn first-hand about historical experiences by visiting local places which relate to their topic. Children also gain experiences from visitors where they dress up and take on the role of a character from the period being studied which helps to bring the events to life.

Our aim is for children to leave The Lea being critical thinkers who are able to use a variety of investigative skills to continue exploring different events, people and civilisations that have shaped our world.

 Our long-term curriculum overview can be found on the link below. Please note that this is a working document and is under a state of constant review – this overview was accurate as of Autumn 2022.

History Curriculum

The National Curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
  • know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
  • gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
  • understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
  • understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
  • gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short and long-term timescales