At Much Marcle, we believe that high quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

We have a history curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge, enabling children to enquire, research and analyse history, preparing children for the future.

Our intent for history education is to ignite a lifelong curiosity about the past and its impact on society. We aim to foster critical thinking, creativity and resilience in our learners, enabling them to ask questions, hypothesise and draw conclusions based on evidence. We endeavour to create a coherent and ambitious curriculum that reflects the diversity of our heritage, linking local, national and global histories.

What does History look like at Much Marcle?

• Children will be encouraged to become curious learners through research, exploration and raising questions about events in the past.
• A variety of approaches to teaching history – children will be encouraged to undertake independent, partner and group work.
• Children will be taught using key historical substantive concepts (what we are leaning) to enable them to hypothesize, draw conclusions, link and find differences through periods of time as they progress through the school.

By the end of EYFS pupils will have a secure foundation about the world around them including the concept of past and present. They will have had opportunities to learn about the world around them through observation, investigation and play.

By the end of KS1 pupils will develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.

They should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.

They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.

They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.

By the end of KS2 pupils will continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.

They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.

They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organization of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

• Children think, reflect, debate and evaluate the past, asking questions which they have created;
• Children undertake high quality research using a variety of sources, including the Internet, books and articles;
• Children become critical and independent thinkers;
• Children develop an interest in the past, and develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer;
• Children know about significant events in British history, and to appreciate how things have changed over time;
• Children develop a sense of chronology with some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world;
• To help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage;
• Children develop the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.