Search Icon, click to search

History

waves decoration

‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots’

 Marcus Garvey.

 

At John Scurr, our robust history curriculum ensures that pupils leave us with a secure understanding of our world today and the people and events who have shaped it across place and time. This supports them in understanding their own place in the world today, and in the long history of human development. Human societies are and always have been extremely complex and diverse. Our history curriculum at John Scurr helps pupils to appreciate these complexities and to celebrate the diversity of our world today and in the past. 

We teach history at John Scurr, using the CUSP curriculum, which is structured around the principles of advancing both substantive and disciplinary knowledge cumulatively. We ensure that substantive knowledge is built upon cumulatively by centering our curriculum around 6 key substantive concepts: community, knowledge, invasion, civilisation, power and democracy. These concepts are the golden thread that run through our history curriculum from EYFS - Year 6, and are revisited and explored through different lenses year upon year. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with significant periods of time, people, places and events

Disciplinary knowledge is also threaded through our history curriculum at John Scurr, giving our pupils an understanding of how historians investigate the past and construct historical claims. Our pupils therefore develop the tools to work historically and construct their own knowledge of the past. They go on to use this knowledge to investigate change, continuity, similarity, difference and significance within and across the periods of history studied. 

From EYFS - Year 6, the following strands of disciplinary knowledge are taught and built upon each year:

  • Chronology
  • Cause and consequence
  • Change and continuity
  • Similarity and difference
  • Evidence
  • Significance

At John Scurr, we bring our history learning from the classroom to life through trips to relevant places of historical significance and visits from significant people. These visits are carefully planned so that pupils’ attention is focused on historical content and to ensure that learning that takes place within the classroom is supported. Some examples of historical visits and how they support our curriculum are:

  • Reception Inspiration Day - different local professionals visit our reception children to develop their understanding of people around them and their roles in society
  • Year 2 Great Fire of London Walking tour - to experience the sights of the fire in real life and to explore evidence which remains from the fire today
  • Year 3 visit to the London Mithraeum - to experience a Roman Temple and develop an understanding of the process of uncovering it
  • Year 6 visit to the Docklands Museum - to hear real life experiences from members of the Windrush generation 

What Do We Teach?

Year Group Area of Study:

EYFS:

In our 2yo, nursery and reception settings, we:

  • teach children the foundational knowledge they need to develop their geographical understanding
  • provide them with opportunities and experiences to build on this foundational knowledge 
  • continue to build their knowledge and language through structured story times

In order that they are able to:

Past and present:

  • Talk about the lives of people around them and their roles in society.
  •  Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class. 
  • Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.
  • Understanding chronology and how things change over time
  • Recognising significant people in our lives and within our community

People, Culture and Communities:

  • Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observations, discussions, stories, non-fiction texts and maps. 
  • Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.

Year 1:

  • Changes within living memory  - What are the stages in my life? 
  • The lives of significant people –  Mary Anning, David Attenborough and Neil Armstrong (revisit)

Year 2:

  • Events beyond living memory – The Great Fire of London
  • Local History Study – Victorian Britain

Year 3:

  • Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
  • The Roman Empire and its influence on Britain

Year 4:

  • Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
  • The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor
  • The achievements of the earliest civilisations – Ancient Egypt

Year 5:

  • Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the western world
  •  Comparison study - Maya and Anglo-Saxons

Year 6:

  • Local History Study – WWII and the Blitz 
  • Windrush generation
  • Monarchs through time