Our vision of history teaching at Moons Moat First School is to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past.

We want them to have a keen sense of chronology, and through this develop a sense of identity and cultural understanding based on their historical heritage.

We feel if we teach children to enjoy learning about the past, they will have a better understanding of the society in which they live and understand how to become a valued member of our community and the wider world today.

History subject leader: Mrs C. Kelly

The aims of history at our school are:

• to foster an interest in the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer;
• to develop a sense of chronology and use terms relating to the passing of time, making links between different periods they have studied.
• to enable children to know about significant events in British history and the wider world;
• to help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of cultural heritage.
• to understand methods of historical enquiry;
• to understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance.

History is taught in Years 1-4 through a topic based approach. This enables children to be immersed in the subject and for them to make links across the subjects they study, therefore making connections in their learning and language. Topics are chosen through an understanding of the needs of the children, their interests and experiences. Some content is stipulated within  the National Curriculum, however, school planning incorporates first hand learning to deepen knowledge and understanding and broaden the children's experiences. Children begin to develop an understanding of History as a concept within the Foundation Stage. They develop their understanding of historical vocabulary such as in the past, before I was born etc. and use this knowledge and language to prepare them for learning in Year One. 

By the time the children leave the school at the end of Year 4, children have developed their understanding of key events in History, so that they can place future study in a context and timeline and make links with why certain things happened and cause and consequence. Children have a developing understanding of key historical terminology so that they can access historical texts and content when moving through the rest of Key Stage 2. Children will have gained the knowledge and confidence to question why things have happened and know how they can find out more. We believe that by teaching History through a topic based approach across Key Stage 1 and 2, that children make links with how History fits with other subject areas and how skills and knowledge can be transferred.  This can clearly be seen in the topic webs produced for each topic.

Click here to see how History is taught in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Click here to see our History policy.

Click here to see our History knowledge progression across the school.