History

 

At Rainford CE, we believe that History should inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past as they gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Through appreciation of the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, pupils will learn to recognise the importance of commonalities and celebrating differences.

By the end of their time with us, our children will have mastered the stories of our St Helens and Rainford communities and the events that have formed and shaped our locality in order to develop their deep knowledge of, and respect for local history.

Our curriculum will equip children to explain their understanding of change and continuity, similarity and difference, cause and effect, chronology and significance to interpret events and developments across their learning journey from regional to national to international historical events and figures. They will ask and answer challenging historical questions that make links between events, developments, peoples and periods in the past, whilst their ability to investigate, consider, reflect and review events of the past will have enabled a broad and deep understanding.

All Rainford CE pupils will be confident in using historical vocabulary to effectively communicate their ideas and they will select and apply their knowledge and skills from other subjects to further support in drawing their own conclusions and communicate their findings.

The curriculum content is sequenced to build learning over time- the content is planned and sequenced so that knowledge and skills build on prior learning and towards clearly defined end points; curriculum content supports subsequent learning: within lessons, lesson sequences, topics, years and phases curriculum ; planning identifies small enough component steps; and known gaps in knowledge and skills are addressed in the sequencing of lesson content.

Our history curriculum is progressive in chronology sequenced towards clearly identified endpoints. Every child’s history book has a historical timeline showing all of their historical learning taught during their time at Rainford so that pupils have the opportunity to look at the chronology of history units taught so far to place learning into the bigger picture. This is also the focus of the first lesson within a history unit within Key Stage Two.

Following the National Curriculum, each unit focusses on a key historical concept: Significance, Continuity and Change, Cause and Consequence and Similarity and Difference. These concepts are repeated over time so that children deepen their understanding across a range of historical contexts.

Our curriculum is carefully designed in to 1 year cycle for Years 1 – 4 and a 2 year cycle for Years 5 and 6.

In KS1, pupils focus on local history in Year 1 so that they can relate the learning to their own experiences of the local area. We chose to start the year with a focus on toys to link to their EYFS curriculum and because they will still be accessing continuous provision at this point in the year. It also links to the DT and computing for that term. They then study the chronology of transport which is highly significant in our local area given the close proximity to the Leeds/Liverpool canal, 2 international airports and the local Rainhill trails and Rainford Linear train lines and the Liverpool Docks.

In Year 2, pupils focus on national history and the significance of Remembrance Day, the cause and consequence of the Great Fire of London and the similarities & differences between Christopher Columbus, Shackleton and Neil Armstrong. Remembrance Day was chosen as a focus historical event beyond living memory as pupils partake in this memorial each year, both in school and in the local community, so we felt it was important that they understand the cause of this memorial. The Great Fire of London was chosen as the other event beyond living memory because we felt that, living in the north of England, our pupils are less likely to hear about this event in local museums etc, so we wanted to ensure that they have an understanding of this pivotal national event.

In Year 3, pupils study British history, namely the changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age and the impact of the Roman empire on Britain. To ensure depth of understanding of continuity and change in such a vast topic, we have chosen to cover Stone Age to Iron Age Britain over 2 half terms.

In Year 4, pupils focus on Ancient Civilisations. We chose an in-depth study of Ancient Egypt as a result of pupil voice and passion for the subject. This topic also allows for essential experiences locally with both Liverpool and Manchester museum housing permanent Egyptian exhibits. This is followed by a study of Greek life and their influence on the western world, in accordance with the National Curriculum.

In Upper Key Stage 2, pupils firstly study Ancient Islamic civilisation. Being a predominantly white British Christian school, we purposely chose for our children to learn about Ancient Islam in their non-European study to build pupil’s cultural capital in an area which they, predominantly, have little external experience of.  Within this cycle, pupils will then cover an in-depth study of Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxon, Scots and Vikings. To ensure depth of understanding of continuity and change in such a vast topic, we have chosen to cover Stone Age to Iron Age Britain over 2 half terms.

In Cycle 2, pupils focus on local history. Firstly, they undertake a study of changes in education, with a focus on the concepts of continuity & change and similarity & difference. The theme of education was chosen as this is something that the pupils can directly relate to. Within this cycle, they also take part in a cross-curricular local study called Canary Sings. This unit of work was designed by staff and pupils from a range of schools in St Helens alongside an artist called Tracy Spiers who created a high quality text to be used within lessons.

Furthermore, in Key Stage Two, we have built a specific revision unit into our curriculum to allow time for further quality remembering and embedding. The planning for this revision unit is based on the key knowledge (end points) of prior learning- taken from key knowledge organisers from prior units and end points on long-term planning. This unit is also an opportunity for pupils to develop their learning behaviours through engaging “project” style learning where children can take the lead in their own learning and revision in a cross-curricular, meaningful way e.g. creating documentaries or board games based on their key knowledge. This revision unit can be found in Cycle 2 for UKS2 (autumn) lasting 6 weeks.

 

Long Term Planning

	Autumn	Spring		Summer
Preschool	To create a time-line of their own significant events  Looking at our families and their past	Children learn about the life of Amelia Earhart		Describe a past time when they went to the seaside
Reception	Marvellous Me (family life) Compare their family life to family life in the past. Children talk about what they have done with their families during Christmas’ in the past. Remembrance Day	Ticket to Ride (Amelia Earhart) Children learn about the life of Amelia Earhart.		God’s Wonderful World (Jane Goodall) Children explore the life of Jane Goodall learning about her conservation work  Describe a past time when they went on holiday. Compare their experiences to seaside holidays in the past.
Year 1	Toys Changes within living memory Continuity and change	Transport Significant historical events People and places in own locality Continuity and change		Artists –  LS Lowry and Brugel Lives of significant individuals Similarity and difference	Artists –  LS Lowry and Brugel Lives of significant individuals Similarity and difference
Year 2	Remembrance Day Events beyond living memory Significance	Great Fire of London Events beyond living memory Cause and consequence Significance		Explorers- Lives of significant individuals Similarity and difference
Year 3	Stone Age to Iron Age Continuity and change			Roman Empire Significance Cause and consequence
Year 4	Ancient Egypt Continuity and change	Ancient Greece Significance
UKS2 Cycle 1	Early Islamic Civilisation Significance	Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Scots Cause and consequence Continuity and change Similarity and difference
UKS2 Cycle 2	Retrieval and review unit	Education Continuity and change Similarity and difference	Education Continuity and change Similarity and difference	Canary Sings Project (St.Helens) Cause and consequence Continuity and change Similarity and difference

 

Overview of key historical figures

	Reception	Y1	Y2	Y3	Y4		Y5	Y6
Within curriculum units	Jane Goodall	LS Lowry   Pieter Bruegel the Elder	Christopher Columbus Ernest Shackleton Neil Armstrong   Samuel Pepys	Queen Boudica Julius Caesar Cassius Dio	Cleopatra Alexander the Great		Ibn Battuta Al-Zahrawi Rihla   Charles Darwin
Black History Month	Rosa Parks Martin Luther King Jr Bayard Rustin.
Women who Changed the World	Amelia Earhart	Coco Chanel	Frida Kahlo	Gertrude Ederle		Sacagawea	Cycle 1 Mary Anning Cycle 2 Marie Christine Chilver
	Emmeline Pankhurst Marie Curie

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