History

At St Therese, our vision is that pupils leave our school with an enquiring mind: a mind which enables children to combine their knowledge of significant events and people from the past with analytical thinking, so that they can ask questions about the world they live in and how this will shape their futures. 

We want pupils to make progress in history through building their knowledge of the past, and of how historians study the past and construct accounts. We want our teaching  to support pupil progress by planning pupils’ learning so that key knowledge and concepts are built upon over time. This gives them a secure sense of what they have learned and prepares them for what they need to learn next. 

We believe that learning about significant events and people in history are key to developing an enquiring and questioning mind. Children are exposed to a range of historical knowledge to encourage them to understand how the modern world has been shaped by a series of events, exploring what life was like for different people at different times. This aims to encourage children to understand, empathise and ask questions about the world they live in and the people we share it with. 

History has always been held in high regard at St Therese of Lisieux Catholic Primary School.  The local area’s own rich history is a celebrated and inspiring feature of the school’s curriculum.  The history curriculum at St Therese of Lisieux draws from and makes full use of the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality. Topics will focus on our local area’s heritage.

We want to:

• To teach the National Curriculum minimum expectations for key stages 1–2
• Help pupils be better at History by defining our  ‘core’ content – this is our substantive knowledge – which we want pupils to know and remember from particular topics so we can focus clearly on what we want the children to remember and know
• Plan opportunities for pupils to learn  disciplinary knowledge over time so pupils will study specific examples of how historians study the past. eg look at sources, how we make assumptions  about the past, how we make claims.
• Develop pupils  chronological understanding so they are equipped with a developed understanding of chronology and of the different time periods of both British and world history
• Develop context learning to help pupils get better at learning and remembering by framing learning into specific contexts or topics e.g. the Anglo-Saxons, Romans, etc.
• To give breadth to pupils’ learning by creating opportunities for pupils to build their knowledge of a wide range of historical places, events and periods.
• Support pupils to transfer knowledge learned in one topic so they can use it in other topics.
• Enable all pupils to access the curriculum and ensure that this is not reduced or minimised for pupils with SEND
• Improve children’s knowledge and use of historical vocabulary
• Improve learning by organising our key knowledge so pupils build their learning through concepts like invasions’. 

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