Each year group covers a varied selection of well planned topics. We value the importance of global education and ensure the children have an understanding of world issues and different cultures.
Local visits and field trips provide an excellent learning opportunities for the children in history and geography. This enables them to apply their experiences, knowledge and understanding.
History
Learning about history topics is be great fun. Children are inspired to research events, they love thinking about people of the past. It is also fantastic for using so many English, ICT, Art and collaborative skills that we just cannot ignore the wonderful advantages of learning about the past.
EYFS
The early learning goals at EYFS are very much focused on the memories of the child. It may be that they are asked to remember a special event or routine or custom for their family. They may talk about differences between different family members or different generations.
Key Stage 1
Children learn about specific people or events that are both within and beyond living history. We focus on a wide range on people from Tim Peake to Florence Nightingale. We also look at events such as the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight, or themes such as castles or toys.
Key Stage 2
Your child will learn all about the following periods of British history
Children will also be introduced to some world civilisations in history.
Why is Geography important to teach?
Geography is a versatile and dynamic subject that better helps us to understand aspects of the world including its people, places, environments and the interactions between them. Through teaching geography as part of the curriculum we are keen to encourage a desire for discovery and questioning.
We aim to develop and strengthen children’s awareness of the world around them by looking at both physical and human geography. How they are interrelated, through the study of the natural and man-made features of the world. Geography can be taught as a stand -alone subject or through meaningful links with a creative curriculum linking to other subjects such as science and history.
Skills we can learn in Geography
Teaching geography encourages children to develop inquiry skills through questioning:
Where is this place?
Through this questioning children develop a sound knowledge and understanding of places, patterns and processes. Children can further develop these skills through the use of resources such as maps, atlases, aerial photographs and ICT when investigating physical environments such as mountain ranges, rivers and weather patterns. As a subject geography also draws on a vast range of vocabulary to identify and name places the features within them and the human and physical processes at work there.
Difference in Key stages
Both key stages make use of the local environment together with a wide range of secondary sources including video clips, research books and the internet.
In early years and key stage 1 the building blocks of all learning are first observed, recognised, examined and ‘played’ with. In particular the area entitled ‘Understanding the world’ presents the opportunity for children to reflect on the events and routines that they and their peers experience. Through role-play the children can learn experimentally about the different environments that different professions operate in and explain why some things happen the way they do in both the physical and human world.
In Key Stage 1 pupils investigate their local area and a contrasting area, finding out about the environment and people in both areas and carrying out geographical inquiry inside and outside the classroom. In Key Stage 2 pupils investigate a variety of people, places and environment at different locations in the United Kingdom and abroad looking at the similarities and differences. Children are also able to conduct field work and surveys using the local environment to support their learning.