History at St Andrew's
History Curriculum Overview
History at St Andrew’s is engaging, immersive, and inspiring, to support the children’s learning. We strive to encourage the next generation of historians with guest speakers, real-life experiences, boundless opportunities to ask questions and investigate the past. We will do this by:
- Modelling and encouraging use of appropriate and accurate historical vocabulary in relation to area of study
- Allowing child-led investigations where the pupils investigate answers to both their own and given questions
- Inspiring and exciting through teaching, visits and visitors discussing their own experiences, and children reflecting upon their lives
- Learning about key areas of history (within and outside of living memory) depending on their learning stage: including the Roman Empire, Victorians, Tudors, Egypt, Stone Age, Battle of Britain, Castles and Monarchs, Toys and Leisure of the past, Great Fire of London, Dinosaurs, and the Space Race
- Comparing the past with present day
A rich curriculum
History is embedded in our curriculum, with the annual Art Show having a historical theme of ‘A Step Back in Time’. Some inspiring and thoughtful creations were produced, including Stone Age den models from year 6, hot air balloons from year 1, and Victorian silhouette artworks from year 3.
Black History Month
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gold award we received continues to inspire us to ensure that inclusion and equality is at the forefront every day, and annual celebration of Black History Month is one of the many ways we achieve this.
History is allowing the children to question the world around them, and think about what they would like to be different in the future.
(RRSA: article 2 – no discrimination; article 7 – name and nationality; article 8 – identity; article 13 – sharing thoughts freely; article 14 – freedom of thought and religion; article 22 – refugee children; article 30 – minority culture, language and religion.)
Visitors and visits
We have been lucky enough to have some wonderful visitors and speakers at St Andrew’s already this year, to really bring history alive for the children.
We were incredibly lucky that Eddy Smythe came back to visit us to tell us about his father’s experiences of being a black man in the RAF during the war, and also discussed with the older year groups his own experiences of both inclusion and challenges he has faced.
The children have had visits from Sophie the T-Rex in year 1, when they became palaeontologists for the day, digging for fossils and learning about the important work of Mary Anning. Henry VIII paid Year 4 a visit during their Tudor Day, and Year 3 will be visiting Lincolnsfield as part of their Battle of Britain topic.
St Andrew’s will be celebrating the coronation of King Charles III with a garden party and a competition for some children to be ‘Monarch for the Day’ – what a way to round off a brilliant year of history!
Pupil Voice
Some wonderful year 5 students said:
“History is my favourite topic. I like it because it’s like you’re actually there in the past.” Morris
“I love history because you get to hear interesting facts about what happened in the past and how they survived. If you lived to 50 in the time of the Black Death that would be like living to over 100 these days!” Amelia
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