At Byker 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 Byker 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. Our history curriculum is driven by our curriculum drivers and key concepts:

Understanding our place in the world

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 Byker, 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

Learning about incredible historical figures ensures the children at Byker have high aspirations and feel inspired during their history lessons. At Byker, 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

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

Empire

At Byker Primary School, we have three historical concepts that are woven through our history curriculum. Empire is an extremely important concept because it is integral to British and world history. Empire is an abstract idea and hard to comprehend. Therefore, we introduce this concept slowly and carefully. In KS1, we begin by identifying the British monarchy and what it means to be a ruler of one country. In KS2, we begin to explore why countries, civilisations and rulers have felt the need to expand their empire’s. Furthermore, as the children progress through the school they begin to develop their understanding of empire and are able to apply it to the historical periods that they are studying.

Innovation

History has been driven by innovation and we believe it is important that our children recognise this. In each era that they study, children will be able to identify how the innovations of the time affected and changed society. In turn, this allows the children to assess the impact of new inventions and consider how new technologies may affect and change our society today.

Civilisation

Our final historical concept is civilisation. At Byker, the children are exposed to a wide variety of civilisations. We believe this is key to expanding their understanding of the world. Therefore, the children learn about British, European and wider world civilisations during their time at Byker. This enables children to make effective comparisons between the civilisations they study because as they move through school, they gain a greater understanding of how different people have lived during history. The children are able to evaluate what makes a civilisation successful by drawing on their knowledge of the civilisations they have studied. Furthermore, they can link this to their own civilisation, in order to asses how they can make their world a better place.

 

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. At Byker, history is cross-curricular and is taught across a range of subjects, allowing the children to make effective links. 

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.

At Byker Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum for History.