History

What do we teach?

At Skerne Park Academy, we teach a History curriculum that follows the National Curriculum guidance, where skills and knowledge are taught progressively.  We ensure that we make our teaching curiosity invoking whilst making it relevant, purposeful and linked closely to our local area, where possible. We organise our teaching into half termly blocks across the whole school to support the children in their understanding of Historical concepts as well as allowing in depth learning. We follow Plan Bee as a scheme to support our History topic teaching and supplement this with resources, experiences and hands-on learning to inspire and enthuse our children as Historians.

Why do we teach what we teach?

In our History lessons, the children gain an understanding of modern life and that how they live their lives now is as a direct reflection on what has happened in the past. The children know and can identify the key people and events that have influenced our lives now both locally as well as nationally and globally. At Skerne Park Academy we also want to teach the children how to be Historians and develop a curiosity for finding out more through questioning and analysing what they have learnt. 

Why do we teach it in that sequence?

We teach History so that is clearly follows a development in knowledge and skills from the Early Years right through to Year 6. Within Early Years we ensure that the children work towards the end of stage goal contained within the ‘Understanding the world’ strand. For KS1 we focus upon ‘events within living memory’ and KS2 follows a chronological approach to Historical events since the Stone Age. We also use our progressive skills approach to ensure that prior learning is the basis for new learning and that skills are undertaken in a layered approach. Each year group has clearly marked skills and knowledge for each topic that they undertake.