History

‘The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.’

Theodore Roosevelt

At St Nicolas, we are proud of our curious, perceptive historians. Our children are expert enquirers: asking questions, thinking critically, and finding evidence to develop their own perspective of the past.

Children make connections with previous learning, both in history and other subjects as they make comparisons between time periods and contexts and empathise with people from the past. For example, when learning about the Mayan civilizations as part of the ‘Hola Mexico’ project, the Year 5 children draw on their knowledge of the Anglo Saxons, Stone Age, Bronze Age and Ancient civilizations, from Year 3 and 4, to understand how power drives the growth of empires. Children learn about turning points in the history of our world, both in the local area, and further afield, as well as a diverse range of significant historical figures who have had an impact on history.

Reading is a key tool they use to learn about the past, along with exploring historical artefacts and scrutinising images and children are confident evaluating the reliability and usefulness of information to draw their conclusions.

What you will see:

• Children placing their learning within a historical chronology, to draw comparison between different periods, and think about the legacy of people, events and achievements both at the time and beyond.
• Children posing historical questions and actively seeking the answers with their peers how to answer them.
• Children using their reading skills to find out about the past, and expressing their understanding of the past with pieces of extended writing which puts their literacy skills into practice.
• Ambitious children developing powerful knowledge of the past, and seeking to deepen this knowledge further.

What you will hear:

• Children justifying their ideas about the past, giving evidence for their opinions.
• Children using historical language to communicate the passing of time, and the significance of events.
• Children making connections between what they are learning now, their previous time periods studied and their learning in other projects and subjects, building their internal schema about the World and its history.

From Reception to Year 6, history is one of the main focuses for an Abingdon based school project each year. During this project, the whole school will work on history together: children share their thinking with each other, and teaching staff collaborate to make connections between previous and current learning, and ensure progression between years.