Markington CE Primary and Nursery School

“History can mean two things; the past and the study of the past. The past influences all aspects of our lives. It shapes the customs and beliefs of the communities to which we belong. Learning about the past and the methods used to study it helps pupils make sense of the world in which they live.”

                                                            National Curriculum-Non-statutory Guidance

At Markington Primary School we believe that understanding the past is vital in helping us to understand and shape our future. Our curriculum makes full use of the rich historical resources within the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of their locality; the people who have gone before them; how their lives have shaped our locality and our island; and how they will continue to inspire and influence the world. It also celebrates the achievements of past civilizations from around the globe, and draws comparisons and contrasts between people, places and periods. The National Curriculum(2014) and Early Years Framework (2021) form the foundations of our scheme of work, but this is personalised to meet our context and is sensitive/responsive to the children’s interests. The curriculum at Markington is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that teaching and learning is informed by current? research.

Through our teaching of History we aim to:

• To arouse interest in the past and to help understand the present in the context of the past.
• To give pupils an understanding of their own cultural roots and shared inheritances.
• To develop a critical awareness of the past.
• To develop knowledge and understanding of chronology.
• To develop pupil’s ability to acquire evidence from historical sources, to understand different interpretations of history and to form judgements about their reliability and value.
• To contribute to children’s knowledge and understanding of the history of other countries and other cultures in the modern world.
• To communicate historical information clearly using a range of resources.

Our history curriculum begins in the Early Years’ where our children are taught to:

• Remember and talk about significant events in their own experiences e.g. birthday, know and understand that their grandparents are older than their parents,
• Begin to be familiar with words and phrases associated with long ago such as ‘in the past’ or ‘a long time ago’,
• Recognise and describe special times or events for family or friends eg Eid, Christening, Christmas Beginning to compare and contrast characters in stories about the past
• Understand that people celebrated events like Eid or Christmas before they were born, using appropriate language to describe the past such as ‘in the past…
• Begin to understand that some familiar stories were set in a time before they were born and talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society
• Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their own experiences and what has been read in class
• Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling

Our children are exposed to a range of historical questioning and thinking that we embed learning through providing opportunities within our provision and revisiting prior learning and skills which will prepare them for KS1.