History at Elson
The reason for teaching history at Elson is that it changes and enriches understanding of what pupil see in the world and how they see it.
Without children having “knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”. It should inspire pupil’s curiosity to know about Britain’s past and the wider world.
At Elson, History will be taught in a coherent chronological narrative so that each new unit of learning will build on the last one. The focus will be on British History, and how people’s lives have shaped the children’s present culture (and how it might influence their future). We will also learn how the wider world has influenced us. In Upper school, children will also learn about the nature of ancient civilization and how they have influenced their understanding of the world. Children will learn the wonders, achievements, mistakes and problems that have immerged from them.
Children will learn through enquiry. They will have an overarching question to answer. There will be opportunities for both collaborative and independent learning where the children get to grips with the nature of that question. This will be need to be based on historical fact finding through using primary and secondary resources (and understanding how sometimes that is hard).
During the process of enquiry children will improve understanding of historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance and use them to make connections.
At the end of the enquiry the children will be able to present their findings in an interesting and creative outcome to share their thinking with others. This is where they will need to make conclusions about their initial question.
Finally, historical enquiry at Elson will build confidence for our children to be independent thinkers, ask questions, develop high level reasoning and learn how to justify conclusions. These are valued transferable skills for many areas of learning. Historical enquiry will develop our children as deeper thinking, lifelong learners.
The DfE Purpose of study for History states the following:
“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.”
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Elson Junior School History Overview
Click on the link below for a complete copy of this history overview
Click on the link below for a copy of Elson Junior School’s history progression of skills
Elson Junior history progression of skills