Purpose of study

A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.

Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.

History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Aims

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

At Lady Margaret School we teach history as a discrete subject but link it to our core text. This allows us to provide deep and wide-ranging knowledge whilst developing key skills and concepts in history.

The learning journeys in history are constructed through a set of learning statements that cover:

• Knowledge, understanding and concepts
• Skills (working as historians)

Our History learning journey inspires pupils to have a curiosity and fascination about the history of the United Kingdom and of Ancient Civilisations from across the globe. Pupils will develop their sense of chronology and build upon their understanding from Key Stage 1.

Through studying the past they will develop a better understanding of the present. In developing their historical skills, concepts and knowledge they will be motivated to learn more about historical times and to develop an identity about themselves living in modern Britain.

Lady Margaret School serves a diverse community of many cultures and languages. We want all our children to gain knowledge and understanding of the history of this country and its relationships with the wider world.

We recognise that children at Lady Margaret live in a global city and should have the opportunity to learn about the history of London. Using this understanding, children as they grow older will have access to all the wonderful opportunities that the city has to offer.

Lady Margaret’s chosen Substantive Concepts
Substantive concepts are concepts concerned with the subject matter of history, such as invasion, trade, conflict, empire and monarchy. These concepts are woven throughout our history curriculum and are deliberately revisited in different topics to deepen understanding. Rather than teaching these ideas in isolation, they are explored through specific and meaningful historical contexts. This repeated exposure helps our children to build a richer understanding over time. Substantive concepts are considered generative knowledge because they help students make sense of new content. For example, once students understand the idea of trade in one unit of learning, they can apply that understanding to future units involving trade. Although a wide range of concepts are explored, we focus primarily on these key ones, as we believe they are most relevant to the historical units we study
Monarchy	Trade	Empire	Conflict	Religion	Innovation

• Know about significant events and changes in history and how they can be presented chronologically
• Understand the history of Britain and how it has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• Acquire knowledge and understanding of significant aspects of ancient civilisations
• Acquire knowledge of the lives of significant people of the past
• Be able to undertake a historical enquiry to answer questions about the past
• Investigate historical artefacts, evidence and visits to places of interest to gain knowledge about the past-history of Britain and the wider world.

• OT strategies scaffold sequencing and memory through visual timelines, tactile maps and movement-based learning. 
• Pupils develop planning and organisation skills using frameworks. 

History curriculum overview