“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”

We aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the past, to help them explore Ancient Civilisations and Empires and learn about the lives of significant people of the past.

Welcome to History at Burnside

History is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum. The fundamental knowledge, skills and understanding of the subject are set out in the National Curriculum programmes of study. It is a subject that will be taught each term in conjunction, where possible, with other curriculum areas. Through an enquiry-based curriculum, children will develop their Historical knowledge and understanding, which will be driven by a progression of skills-based outcomes. 

All pupils are entitled to access the History curriculum at a level appropriate to their individual needs; all History lessons will therefore be differentiated to meet the needs of the children in each class. The teaching of History helps to support Burnside’s ethos of:

• Be Safe - Analysing and evaluating sources of information and past events allow the children to think about the world around them and make safe choices.
• Be Smart - The children develop critical thinking skills which they can apply to their wider learning.
• Be Kind - Through studying historical figures and events, children can reflect upon British values and the effects of positive and negative choices.
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Our Aims

Through our teaching of History, we aim to:

• Develop the children’s Historical knowledge and understanding through enquiry-based learning.
• Fire pupils' curiosity about the past in the local area, Britain and the wider world.
• Encourage thinking about how the past influences the present.
• Help students develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people, using appropriate historical terms.
• Foster a sense of individual and shared identity and an increased understanding of pupils' own position in their own community and the world.
• Develop a range of skills and abilities - particularly those related to finding out about the past, explaining what happened and what people then and now think about what happened.
• Understand that our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources that need to be appropriately and rigorously evaluated and analysed.
• Develop skills in thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.

As with all our subject teaching, we do not teach History in isolation to other curriculum areas, we try to relate the work undertaken to real life situations and we also aim to:

• Improve pupils' skills in English, Maths, Geography and Computing.
• Develop pupils' thinking skills and resilience.
• Promote pupils' awareness and understanding of gender, cultural, spiritual and moral issues.
• Develop pupils as active and responsible citizens in line with our school’s ethos of: Be safe, Be smart, Be kind.