History

At The Olive School, Birmingham, our young historians will gain a deep, well-rounded and chronologically coherent understanding of local, national and internationally significant periods, events, people and historical aspects. Our children will leave us feeling inspired and curious to find out even more. We will support our children to do this by building awareness of both their own heritage and that of the wider world, and by equipping them with the essential historical skills that can be used and applied across all domains of history in future learning.

We will deliver an ambitious, motivating and knowledge-rich curriculum that:

• Gives children a deep chronological understanding of the UK and Birmingham, including its interactions with the wider world
• Exposes children to significant ancient civilisations, empires and non-European societies
• Draws connections between different aspects of local, regional, national and international history
• Develops a wide and deep historical vocabulary
• Uses and applies important concepts and skills such as cause and effect, similarity and difference, chronology and interpretation of different historical sources
• Allows children to understand methods of historical enquiry and develop critical thinking

In Reception, through Understanding the World: Past and Present, pupils talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society, learn about some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, draw on their experiences and what has been read in class. They also understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.

This process of knowledge acquisition continues in key stage 1 with a focus on the local history of Birmingham where children learn about significant events, people and places. Learning about the immediate world around them is the ideal foundation for later composite learning in key stage 2. Children also study the example of Florence Nightingale as being a significant individual from the past who has contributed to national achievements by being the founder of modern nursing. This component learning is undertaken whilst children also build their historical vocabulary and slowly enrich their chronological schema. Children learn to ask questions, use different sources and begin to understand that the past can be represented in different ways.

In key stage 2, children’s chronological frameworks are further developed, at a local, national and international level. This includes a focus, for example, on the Romans, Ancient Egypt, Mayans and World War 2. Whilst developing this wider chronological understanding of history, our children build and add to timelines through the year groups to ensure they can reference and refer to events from prior learning.

Our children’s historical skills are developed by recognising connections, contrasts and trends over time, using historical terms, analysing causes and historical significance. The history progression map details the careful long-term curriculum sequencing of these essential historical skills and concepts over time. For example, in key stage 1, our children identify simple similarities and differences between life in different periods. In upper key stage 2, children then make detailed observations of differences and changes within and across time periods, evaluating the importance of these changes within the context of wider history.

Our knowledge-rich history curriculum is taught according to the following whole school long term plan for history:

The four strands in the National Curriculum for history are ‘skills and concepts’, ‘local history’, ‘British history’ and ‘Wider World history’. These are carefully sequenced in our history progression map, accessible below.

Our children are given motivating and inspiring out-of-class opportunities and special experiences to embed essential learning. This enrichment is an essential element of our history curriculum offer. For example:

• Visits to the local park to learn of its historical origins
• Visit to Warwick Castle
• Visit to Selly Manor Museum to take part in a ‘Great Fire of London’ experience day
• Visit to Birmingham canals
• Visit to Birmingham Central Library to study how it has changed over the years
• Various workshops and experience days learning about ancient civilisations- Ancient Greeks, Vikings, Ancient China, Mayans.

Related documentation:

History Roadmap Year R-6

History Progression Map