History

Our intent at Harnham Infant School is to stimulate children’s natural curiosity about the life of people living in the past. We want children to build on previous knowledge and embed key concepts into their long term memory and apply them fluently allowing children to enjoy, explore, learn and then develop expertise. We endeavour to further enrich the children’s learning, giving the children opportunities to visit museums and historical buildings, listen to visiting speakers, use books, video clips, old documents, photographs, stories and artefacts to enhance and deepen their understanding.  In the EYFS, we look for opportunities to observe children talking about experiences that are familiar to them and how these may have differed in the past.

The teaching of History is sequenced so that new knowledge and skills are taught progressively and carefully, considered repetition enables children to revisit and build on prior learning in order to master it. The logical progression of skills are taught systematically and focus on the language and skills taught in each year group. These skills are: Chronological Understanding, Knowledge and Understanding of Past Events, People and Changes in the Past, Historical Enquiry, Organisation and Communication and Language.

Above all, we hope the impact of the History curriculum will inspire pupils leading to a fascination about the past that remain with them for the rest of their lives.