Our aim is for all Woodside children to develop crucial knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past, and that of the wider world. We want our children to ask questions about the past to enable them to recognise how people’s lives on an individual and collective basis have changed over time, and to understand the importance of the impact of these changes. We also want children to connect their historical understanding with their lives, and the world, now. Our local environment and history offer a rich source of historical exploration through fieldwork. In line with the National Curriculum for history, our intent is that all children:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history, and between short- and long-term timescales

Characteristics of a historian

• Ability to gather historical data from various sources
• Understand key British, local and worldwide historical events within a clear and chronological framework
• Ability to analyse and think critically about historical information to determine its authenticity and significance
• Understand and use a wide range of historical vocabulary
• Identify historical connections, contrasts and trends over time
• Answer and ask historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance

How we teach history at Woodside This has been developed with reflection upon the National Curriculum (2014) and Kapow www.kapowprimary.com  

Our Nursery and Reception staff work closely with subject teams to ensure our curriculum is carefully planned from Nursery through to Year 6. 

Aspirations for the future Careers, hobbies and interests

• Curator
• Member of Parliament
• Tour guide
• Historian
• Archaeologist
• Conservationist
• Teacher