HISTORY
CO-ORDINATOR: MISS L RALLS
OUR INTENT for the History curriculum at St Joseph's is that:
Every child has an understanding of the history of the UK and the wider world, from ancient civilisations, to events beyond 1066. Every child can put events in chronological order and understand the links between cause and effect in different historical events.
The history scheme of work, designed by the curriculum co-ordinator, reflects pupils' needs and our unique locality as "The home of the British army", covering the full scope of the History National Curriculum. It encorporates significant historical events, people and places in our locality to ensure breadth, balance, continuity and progression. This results in building new skills and knowledge based upon what has been taught before, allowing all pupils, including SEN and disadvantaged pupils, to work towards clearly defined end points such as the nature of ancient civilisations.
St Joseph’s history aims are derived from the aims of the National Curriculum for History and every history lesson taught at the school is mapped onto one of these key aims. This ensure that every aspect of this subject is given appropriate attention through every pupils’ journey through history from Early Years (Understanding the World) to the end of year 6. We develop children’s experiences and understanding of history and ignite their curiosity about Britain’s past and that of the wider world; building critical thinking skills so that children can make reasoned judgements that are logical and well thought out through encompassing memorable learning opportunities for example, going to the Aldershot Military Museum and our different themed days across both key stages.
See HERE for the Curriculum Overview.
Implementation of the History Curriculum
The school provides a coherently planned curriculum, sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills through informative teaching and learning activities and enhancement experiences. Opportunities for pupils to overlearn and build on pre learned skills and knowledge are woven throughout the scheme of work so that they can commit their learning to their long term memory.
Within our classrooms, we follow rich and ambitious lines of enquiry by answering big questions such as ‘What impact did the Roman Empire have on Britain?’ We teach pupils the knowledge they need in small steps to answer these challenging questions successfully. Studying history in this way inspires pupil’s curiosity, encourages them to ask critical questions and enables them to have a better understanding of the society in which they live and that of the wider world (Ofsted 2023, Rich encounters with the past: History subject report). Throughout our history curriculum, we have used overarching themes to give the curriculum cohesion:
In our EYFS, children begin to develop their sense of chronology by talking about their own life story and the life story of family members such as:
- talking about members of their immediate family and community
- naming and describing people who are familiar to them
- commenting on images of familiar situations in the past
- compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
They are supported to communicate in the past tense when talking about things that have happened. Our EYFS children explore images of the past and make comparisons with the present. Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community.
In Key Stage 1, children learn about famous British explorers as well as lesser known local heroes. They learn about great events in our history from the Battle of Trafalgar to the Great Fire of London. They also learn about objects and inventions from the past and how these things change and can change us.
The main focus in this key stage is to teach children about the passing of time and give them an understanding of chronology. We also want to encourage the children to begin to think about the use of evidence through providing different resources for them to study. There is also a strong focus on locality in Key Stage One as our area offers a rich and interesting history, from the first British flight to the home of one of our most celebrated female authors.
In Key Stage 2, there is a strong focus on chronology and a key period of British history is taught in each year from the Stone Age through to the Viking invasions. Alongside these topics the children will increase their knowledge of world history, studying ancient civilizations such as the Ancient Egyptians and the Mayans. An aspect of more modern history is covered in Year Six during a topic about the Battle of Britain and Year Five do a local study on the uniqueness of Aldershot and its military background.
Butser Ancient Farm
As a Year group, we visited Butser Ancient Farm and explored the timeline of ancient homes from the Stone Age to the Anglo-Saxons. The trip gave us all an impression of what daily life could have been like for those who lived in the stone age thousands of years ago. We had the opportunity to explore many different ancient dwellings, we made Stone age jewellery and dug for artefacts. Not only did the children have a brilliant time, but they learnt a great deal about the Stone age and were given the opportunity to see real artefacts rather than just pictures in books.
Year 5 Aldershot Military Museum Trip
Year 5 went on a school trip to the Aldershot Military Museum for their history local study. They looked at primary sources, used clothes from different time periods and looked at different vehicles used in Aldershot!
Year 1/2 Great Fire of London day!
Year 1/2 took part in a Great Fire of London day, they made houses out of cardboard to make the city of London and baked biscuits like Thomas Farriner. We had an amazing day!
Year 3's Egyptian Day!
Year 3 took part in a variety of different activities to understand how the Egyptians lived! They had a lot of fun creating their own masks and their own posters to show their knowledge from the topic.
History Trips
Please see the different activities the various year groups complete over the course of the year. You will see photos from 1/2 Florence Nightingale Day, Year 5 Anglo- Saxon's topic and Year 3's trip for the Celts!
Remembrance Day 2023
On Monday 13th November, as a whole school, we celebrated and commemorated the soldiers who died during the First World War. We spoke about the History behind Remembrance day and how it is also called 'Armistice Day'. As a school, we reflected on why red poppies are used as a symbol for remembrance day and we also remember the men and women in the armed forces who have given their lives in all the wars that have taken place since the ending of the Second World War. During this special time, parades and special services have taken place and poppies have been laid at war memorials. Each class brought their wreath up to the front to show their respects.
'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.'
Updated November 2023