Our Vision

Throughout their time at The Weald, we aim to develop a love of and deep understanding in pupils of local, British and World history through a wide range of quality historical experiences. This will include school visits and visitors, supporting understanding of how our lives have been shaped by events in our past and helps the formation of curious minds and historically- valid questions. The quality of these experiences and learning will have a direct impact on engaging children in reading, through inspiring history-based narratives, and in their writing and enhances the quality of the writing across the curriculum and in a range of genres. Our locality enables us to make excellent links with a range of historical eras and reflect on how history has affected the way areas change over time, developing understanding of why our local towns and businesses are positioned where they are. Our curriculum motivates pupils to question in greater detail about how events in our past.

How we plan and teach being Historians

Pupils develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
Class timelines: Each class has a timeline which records all previous history learning and enables children to place the History being studied in context.
Children will have constant access to a wide variety of subject specific fiction and non-fiction books, available in history lessons, other lessons and in the class book area.
Where possible we use artefacts for children to explore and investigate. We believe that handling real objects enhanced the children’s historical knowledge, understanding and skills.
We aim for children to recognise that bias exists in some form in all historical sources, and this needs to be accounted for in their interpretation of evidence.
We plan historical visits and visitors to provide first-hand experiences for the children to support and develop their learning. We recognise that to have impact the planned experience must be clearly linked to the statutory historical knowledge to be acquired and provide the opportunity for children to better understand the knowledge or apply what they already know.
English, Maths and ICT skills are taught during discrete lessons but are revisited in history so children can apply and embed the skills they have learnt in a purposeful context.

Whenever a new historical period or event is studied, ask these questions over the course of a unit:
Characteristics:

• What were people’s lives like during this historical period?
• What was/were society/culture/economy/military/religion/politics like during this historical period?
• What else do I want/need to know about this historical period?

Historical Links:

• How has this historical period influenced other historical periods?
• How have other historical periods influenced this historical period?
• How does this period/event compare to other historical periods/events (that have already been studied)?

Evidence:

• What is the evidence for this historical event?

Significance:

• What is significant about this historical event or period?
• Who were the significant and/or influential figures during this period?
• What were the main achievements of this historical period?
• What were the follies of mankind in this historical period?

Chronology/Timeline:

• When did this event occur?
• How long did this period last?
• What came before and after this historical period? Link to previous learning.

Elsewhere:

• What was going on elsewhere in the world during this historical period?

How we evaluate our learning being Historians

Children know more, remember more and understand more about History. Children understand and use the key skills of Historical enquiry, organisation and communication, Historical interpretation, chronological understanding and knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past. The large majority of children will achieve age related expectations in History. As historians, children learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in their future.

Please find here a very useful link to BBC Bitesize History.