History
At Shaw Cross we encourage an investigative approach to history. We strive to ignite children’s curiosity about the past and encourage children to pose questions and follow their own lines of enquiry. In doing so children are required to develop their critical thinking skills, analyse and consider evidence, and draw conclusions about historical events and people.
In foundation stage children develop their history skills through the people and communities strand of understanding the world. Much of their work is based upon personal experience and events that have happened within their own lives, or those of their family. Children are encouraged to share an interest in their own history, and to talk about significant events and special times in their lives. In doing so we promote an appreciation for similarities and differences between themselves and others and encourage them to celebrate their uniqueness. This supports the PSHCE and RE curriculum in understanding the traditions of different communities.
Within Key Stage One, children are encouraged to enhance their awareness of the past and use historical vocabulary linked to the passage of time. Where possible we develop cross curricular links and ensure children have a purpose for asking and answering questions. This may be initiated through story or through real life events. As they explore the past, we focus on a range of historical sources of information and encourage children to consider the reliability of these sources as evidence. Our enquiry skills include use of books, internet sources, CD Roms, and discussion with real people. Once children have studied periods of time, significant events and/or people, we encourage them to fit this within a chronological framework. This then enables them to identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
History also enables children to understand the complexity of people’s lives and the process of change. They study significant local, national and global events and look at how past events have shaped the future. We aim to inspire children to take key messages from the past to enhance and improve their own and others’ lives, and open up aspirations for who they want to be and the world they would like to live in.
We ensure all children have access to the content of the EYFS curriculum and the National Curriculum for history.