The aim of history teaching here at Palmarsh is to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. It is our intention to foster in our children an interest in the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer.

We want to enable children to know about significant events in British history and to appreciate how things have changed over time.

We want our children to develop a sense of chronology; to know and understand how the British system of democratic government has developed and, in so doing, to contribute to a child’s citizenship education.

We want the children to understand how Britain is part of a wider European culture and to study some aspects of European history; to have some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world and to help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage. WE WANT DEVELOP YOUNG HISTORIANS!

We have invested in the Connected History schemes of work for Key Stages 1 and 2, written and developed by David Weatherly (an exemplar can be found in the block below) Children are taught History from Year R to Year 6 and each new topic begins with an over arching question which is answered through a series of further questions and investigations. Progression in History is assessed in various ways and based on attainment in mastering the ability to: recognise, identify, describe, observe, select, categorise, classify, sequence, compare, contrast, recall, reason/speculate, summarise, synthesise, explain, demonstrate understanding, empathise, reach informed conclusions, make reasoned judgments, justify, apply, evaluate, critique and hypothesise. 

We are gradually building up our resources for teaching all units in the school. We have invested in boxes of equipment and resources for a number of topics including The Vikings and Romans, and we shall continue to add more. We keep these resources in a central store and these are made available to all teachers and children to enhance their enjoyment of the topic. 

Monitoring takes place regularly through sampling children’s work, teacher planning, book scrutiny and lesson observations.