History

To provide a highly engaging and challenging history curriculum that encourages our students to be ambitious and successful historians who gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world which helps to stimulate pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Children will begin 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.

Units in the whole school curriculum map are organised so that they build on prior learning. Children begin by learning about significant individuals, events and generational change relating to themselves, London and the UK. The curriculum then moves on to discover more about significant cultures and eras throughout the ages.  Within a unit, lessons build up to answer the overarching enquiry question.

At Noel Park, we ensure that each lesson contains the right mix of knowledge and skills. For every new topic we begin with a launch day where children complete a range of activities linked to the new period of history they are studying.  This allows the children to immerse themselves  in their new unit and develop a good understanding of the knowledge they will need from the very beginning. Lessons then continue over a 6 week block. In each lesson the children focus on a particular historical skill, such as similarities and differences, evidence or continuity and change.  There skills are repeated as children go through the year and as they move through the school. This allows for a clear progression of skills from Year 1 to Year 6.