History Overview at Burnside 

At Burnside Primary School, we value our high-quality history curriculum. A purposeful history education allows children to understand the wider world through studying past societies and events. We know that having a rich and broad history curriculum enables children to understand the present by learning about the past. History at Burnside allows children to ask perceptive questions, think critically and develop their own judgement. Our children are taught about a range of complex and different societies and thus are encouraged to think deeply about their own identities. 

 

Understanding our place in the world - BELONG

To understand why we live as we do today, we must look to the past. Therefore, learning about how our society has developed over time can help children comprehend their place in the world. Furthermore, at Burnside, we place a strong emphasis on learning about the history of our local area. Exploring the history of their locality makes the learning for the children tangible and exciting. We also understand the importance of a history curriculum that encompasses local, national and international history. Ensuring that our curriculum explores all three is vital to a rich history education as it allows the children to make important connections and comparisons across world history. In turn, providing the children with the knowledge to understand where they fit within the wider world.

 

Aspiring to achieve - ACHIEVE

Learning about incredible historical figures ensures the children at Burnside have high aspirations and feel inspired during their history lessons. At Burnside, we know that having a wide range of role models is extremely important as it means every child can see themselves in a successful historical figure. In turn, this allows all children to feel that their dreams are achievable because someone similar to them has done it before. Furthermore, we take pride in our Black History Month and look forward to celebrating International Women’s Day. Both these events, allow children access to a variety of inspiring historical figures.

 

Broadening horizons - THRIVE

Our history curriculum aims to develop curiosity and enthusiasm about British and world history. At Burnside, the children are exposed to a wide variety of historical societies, ranging from The Victorians to the Ancient Greeks. Furthermore, the children’s horizons are broadened at every opportunity in history by exploring the achievements of different civilisations.

 

Our history curriculum aims to ensure that all children make progress as they move through school by developing a secure understanding of the block of knowledge that they are studying. Alongside this, we hope that our children develop a greater understanding of the historical concepts and the chronology of their study as they move through the key stages.

 

Subject Aims

Our history curriculum enables pupils to develop better understanding of the world in which we live. Building knowledge and understanding of historical events and trends enables them to develop a much greater appreciation for current events today and feel a sense of belonging where they fit into our world. 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.

The teaching of History supports our 3 key principles:

• 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.

 

At Burnside, we follow the National Curriculum for History. The aims of which are outlined below:

The National Curriculum for History aims to ensure that all pupils:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.

• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.

• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.

• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.

• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

 

A Link to the National Curriculum; History Programme of Study