History
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
— Marcus Garvey
Intent
At St Mary’s, our History curriculum inspires curiosity about the past and develops a coherent understanding of Britain’s history and that of the wider world.
From Early Years to Year 6, pupils build secure chronological knowledge and develop the disciplinary skills required to think critically about historical evidence and interpretation.
We want pupils to:
- develop secure chronological understanding
- understand cause and consequence
- recognise continuity and change
- analyse evidence and interpretation
- evaluate significance
- make meaningful connections between past and present
Our curriculum develops both substantive knowledge, including key people, events, civilisations and concepts, and disciplinary knowledge, ensuring pupils learn not just what happened, but how we know.
Through carefully chosen units, including local history and studies of diverse civilisations, pupils explore themes such as power, migration, conflict, resistance and legacy. We are committed to ensuring our curriculum reflects inclusion and representation and helps pupils understand how history shapes the world today.
Implementation
Early Foundations (EYFS)
In Nursery and Reception, children begin developing historical thinking by learning about past and present, talking about their own lives and family history, sequencing familiar events and exploring stories set in the past. These experiences lay the foundations for later chronological understanding and historical enquiry.
A Coherent, Enquiry-Led Curriculum (KS1 and KS2)
History is taught through carefully structured enquiries. Each unit is framed around an overarching “big question”, and every lesson within the unit has its own enquiry question. These lesson enquiries build progressively so that pupils accumulate the knowledge and skills required to answer the final question with confidence.
Each unit identifies clearly defined sticky knowledge. These are the essential facts, concepts and vocabulary pupils must retain to support future learning. This knowledge is explicitly taught and revisited throughout the unit.
Each unit culminates in a final lesson in which pupils respond to the overarching enquiry question. This serves as a formal assessment opportunity and requires pupils to draw upon the sticky knowledge, vocabulary and sources studied throughout the unit to construct an evidence-based response.
At the end of each unit, pupils also complete ‘Ten Quick Questions’ to assess retention of sticky knowledge and key vocabulary. This focused retrieval practice strengthens long-term memory, identifies gaps and ensures that knowledge is secure before moving forward.
Chronology and Thematic Progression
Our curriculum is sequenced chronologically across Key Stage 2, enabling pupils to study British history from the Stone Age to the present day, alongside significant world civilisations such as Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and the Kingdom of Benin.
Core themes are revisited across year groups, including:
- power and monarchy
- migration and settlement
- conflict and resistance
- innovation and change
- legacy and significance
Revisiting these themes allows pupils to deepen their conceptual understanding over time.
Developing Historical Skills
Historical disciplinary skills are explicitly taught and built progressively. Pupils develop understanding of:
- chronology
- cause and consequence
- continuity and change
- significance
- interpretation and bias
- evidence and reliability
From Key Stage 1 onwards, pupils work with historical sources. They learn to question who created a source, why it was created and how perspective shapes interpretation.
By Upper Key Stage 2, pupils confidently compare contrasting accounts, debate reliability and construct reasoned historical arguments supported by evidence.
Disciplinary Literacy
Disciplinary literacy is central to our history curriculum. Pupils are explicitly taught to read, speak and write as historians.
They:
- analyse primary and secondary sources
- use structured talk to debate interpretations
- write explanations and arguments supported by evidence
- employ causal and comparative language
- use precise historical vocabulary
Writing is used as a tool for thinking. Pupils justify claims, construct arguments and evaluate evidence rather than relying solely on creative tasks.
Even in Key Stage 1, pupils begin to explain their ideas using simple sentence structures such as “I think… because…” and “This shows that…”. This ensures clarity of reasoning, historical accuracy and high expectations for all learners.
Enrichment and Cultural Capital
History is brought to life through educational visits, local history studies, structured debate and enquiry-based learning. Where appropriate, links are made with geography, English, R.E. and science to deepen understanding.
These experiences strengthen engagement and help pupils understand how history shapes the present.
Adaptive Teaching
Teachers ensure that all pupils can succeed in history through carefully planned adaptive teaching. Lessons are designed so that all pupils can access the core knowledge and disciplinary thinking while maintaining high expectations.
This includes:
- explicit teaching and revisiting of key vocabulary
- modelling how to analyse sources and structure historical explanations
- breaking down complex historical concepts into manageable steps
- using visual supports such as timelines, artefacts and diagrams
- structured talk to develop reasoning before writing
- scaffolded writing frames where appropriate, gradually removed as confidence grows
- carefully sequenced questioning to probe and deepen thinking
- opportunities for greater depth through extended enquiry and independent argument
Support is responsive and purposeful. Teachers identify misconceptions quickly and adapt teaching to ensure pupils secure both substantive knowledge and disciplinary skills.
Impact
As a result of our History curriculum, pupils develop secure and connected historical knowledge over time. They demonstrate clear chronological understanding and can explain how different periods link together.
Pupils retain key substantive knowledge and use historical vocabulary accurately and confidently. They analyse and evaluate sources, recognise bias and interpretation, and explain cause, consequence and change with increasing sophistication as they move through the school.
By the end of Year 6, pupils can construct reasoned, evidence-based arguments and make meaningful links between past and present. They leave St Mary’s as thoughtful, informed and critical historians who understand that history is not simply about what happened, but how we interpret and learn from it.
How You Can Help at Home
You can support your child’s history learning in simple and meaningful ways:
- Talk about the past, share stories from your own childhood and discuss how things have changed over time.
- Look at family photographs and create simple timelines to help children understand chronology.
- Visit museums, historical buildings or local landmarks and discuss what life might have been like in the past.
- Watch age-appropriate documentaries and talk about what you notice: ask questions such as “How do we know that?” or “Why do you think that happened?”
- Encourage your child to explain their ideas using evidence, for example, “I think… because…”
- Discuss important events in the news and help your child see how history influences the present.
Asking thoughtful questions and encouraging curiosity helps children develop confidence, critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the world around them.