History Curriculum

                ‘The study of history requires investigation, imagination, empathy and respect.’              Jill Lepore, Historian and Journalist

Our Vision

At Rimrose Hope CE  Primary we are committed to providing our pupils with a high quality history curriculum that helps children to gain a knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We believe that by truly understanding the past, our children will understand their own identity and challenges of their time. In every history lesson we teach, we endeavour to develop key historical skills in our learners and encourage them to constantly make connections with the past.

Skills of a great history student

• A curiosity to know more about the past
• Ask perceptive, historically valid questions
• Think critically, weighing evidence and sifting arguments to a develop their own perspective and judgement
• Have a strong understanding of chronology
• Have a strong understanding of methods of historical enquiry
• Make connections across historical periods and explain how the past frames the present
• Be a good communicator, who can work alongside others to tackle some of history’s big questions

Our Curriculum

History at Rimrose Hope is planned and taught to give children insight into the past and how it has affected our lives in the present. History underpins learning like no other subject in school since we can take a subject and explore its origin and development through history. We can see how maths has developed, or where English words come from. We look back on the foundations of religion and we see how scientific innovation and artistic inspiration has changed our world.

The History curriculum has been designed with the National Curriculum in mind with additional units which focus on the local area's history to look at ways we can give children more appreciation and connection with the world around them. We intend that through the study of historical figures, key events and whole periods of time, children can develop their own well-informed opinion about how these aspects of history have led to meaningful and personal change in their life.

The Christian values of our school are encompassed throughout history as we can search back in time for stories linking to all of our Hope values. Vocabulary is built into our curriculum, which progresses as they move through the school, building upon prior knowledge and learning, and oracy is key area which we strive to develop. The Hope Historians are our school’s chosen ambassadors, who meet regularly to share their own views and experiences through learning- and living- history, and show this in our recorded podcasts, available on the school website.

Our Pedagogy

At Rimrose Hope when studying history, we aim for all pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We try to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. We aim to equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. We believe history helps pupils to understand people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. We do this through engaging in the school’s storyline approach. This particular pedagogy ensures that children are emotionally engaged in the period of history they are studying and therefore more naturally motivated to deepen their learning. Knowledge organisers are an essential part of the historian’s armoury and teachers are encouraged to enable children to get involved in the subject through general knowledge quizzes and other pre learning tasks.

In line with school pedagogical practice we use Lane Clarke’s Thinking Tools to develop our children’s reasoning and specific problem solving skills in history and assess the historical skill-set the children possess alongside their more general presentation skills.

Mastery and Depth

In keeping with our school's drive to encourage Mastery and Depth, the appropriate stickers are used in children's work to show who has achieved 'Mastery' of history through their knowledge and understanding of the events and people involved. 'Depth' will be for those enlightened enough to make connections within and across historical periods as well as empathising with the plight of many compared to the decadence of the few throughout the past.

Progression of Skills

EYFS
We breed young historians in Rimrose Hope and we feel that it is important that children in Reception start to understand the concepts of time, such as things that happened long ago, things that occurred in the recent past and the effects that they have had on our lives. The EYFS skills for history encourage the use of vocabulary that can accurately describe when a significant person or event took place. 

Key Stage 1

In Year 1 and 2, children will begin to focus there historical learning by looking at the changes in their local environment in the past century. They will also study significant moments of importance to Britain, like the Great Fire of London, as well as learning about important and inspirational historical figures, such as Florence Nightingale. All children in Rimrose Hope will follow a progression of skills throughout their history learning (see below) that begins in Early Years and gradually builds up through Key stage 1.

Key Stage 2

When children become Juniors, they should be we aware of local aspects of history that has had significant effects on modern life. Areas of study from Year 3/4 will include the Romans impact on Britain, Anglo-Saxons, the Stone Age and how monarchies change through time. In Year 5 and 6, children will learn about the life of the Ancient Greeks, early Viking settlers in Britain and British history that has had a lasting effect to society, such as World War II and the Battle of Britain. In 5/6, we also focus on significant people in the past and how they have caused changes in the way society thinks. We also learn the history of the area of Seaforth and how William Gladstone played a key role in the founding of our school. Children will continue to delve deeper into historical enquiry through these main areas of learning:

Chronological Understanding focuses on understanding historical timelines to plot more acutely how long ago certain events took place. By Year 5 and 6, children should develop the understanding of history concurring concurrently during the same epoch but in different parts of the world.

Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past will engage historians with key events and relevant people throughout history, hopefully recognising links and making connections to other features of historical events and periods. 

Historical interpretation  Using inference and research skills, children will be encouraged to think deeply about the people in the past would have felt during their lives through significant and often strenuous times in the past. They should be able to use suitable resources and evidence to evaluate the recording of events and that there is often more than one side to the story.

Historical enquiry Enquiry will start in LKs2 with children researching and sorting different source material about the given topic to guide their learning. By UKs2, children should be posing their own questions of historical enquiry for investigation.

Organisation and communication This step revolves around the outcome of the learning journey. Historians should communicate about the past through a variety of mediums, from drama and role play to non-chronological reporting and art work. They will learn how to study and read data to make use of their enquiry skills and by Year 6, a competent historian will be able to lead to plan and present a self-directed study or research project.

Hope Historians' podcast👑⭐

Reviews of our podcast:

'Fantastic to listen to the children talk with such confidence and empathy about race and racism-reflects so much the ethos and commitment the school has towards championing equality and diversity.'- Peter Yip, Equality and Diversity consultant

'Developing pupils' vocabulary is one of the most essential components of the primary curriculum. After listening to the Hope Historian's Podcast, it is clear that developing vocabulary is embedded across the history curriculum at Rimrose Hope. All of the children spoke with confidence and displayed outstanding speaking and listening skills- speaking clearly; taking turns; commenting on what each other said and justifying their answers with evidence from history. The Hope Historians are a credit to the school and this podcast demonstrates how pupils at Rimrose are given opportunities to talk about their learning and share knowledge with younger and older pupils. I think these podcasts are an excellent resource to share with other classes. Their teacher expertly demonstrated and modelled how to use historical vocabulary and the children absolutely soaked the learning up and applied it throughout the podcast. As you can see, I absolutely loved this!' - Maddy Barnes, English advisor, teacher, author and BBC Bitesize contributor

Welcome to the first ever Hope Historian's podcast! In these episodes, we will be discussing all things historical in school, in our local community and around the world. 

In our first EVER episode, you get to meet (most of) our Hope Historians and find out a bit about the topics we've done throughout school. Stay tuned right to the end as we begin our epic quest to find The Best Joke in history!

Our festive special of the Hope Historian's Podcast! In this episode, we discuss Christmas through history, including how people may have celebrated Christmas in the past. We also shared facts about significant events that happened. Listen right to the end as we continue to review the best historical jokes, although most Historian's thought that Ava's joke was a cut above the rest🙃 Special interruption guest: Mrs. Breuckner-Hart🎅🎄❄

In this special edition Podcast, we have our fabulous Year 6's sharing their thoughts on the film The Island on Bird Street (1997). We were kindly invited to Crosby Plaza for the Holocaust Memorial Week screening of a film that shows the horrors of living through persecution and war while also being inspirational and highlighting the positive ways people treat each other (we thoroughly recommend it!)

In this Juniors special episode, we talk all about the fateful events of April, 1912 and the RMS Titanic. The Hope Historians (plus special guest Millie) discuss their storyline role in the events, from 1st Class passengers enjoying the high life in the luxurious suites to the 3rd Class passenger in Steerage, bunking deep down in the bowels of the ship near the engines. We focus on what history can teach us about equality and inequality between groups of people.

Stay tuned for the next candidates for Best Joke in History about History!

In our first podcast of the new school year, we have a unique historic edition. The Hope Historians came together to discuss the term historic and how it applies to the events of 8th September 2022 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We shared our experience of hearing the news and spoke of the changes that we'll see in the world. 

Happy New Year 2023! In this episode, the Hope Historians have an open table to choose and discuss an area of history that they are interested in or that they'd really like to know more about. We range from finding out more about the Ancient Egyptians and Iron Age to learning more about what happened to the dinosaurs.

Episode 7 - The Greatest rulers in history📏

No, not those rulers!!! This episode is about the people in history who had control and power over places and people. We looked at some pictures to identify famous (or infamous) rulers through history. Then the Historians chose some candidates for the most significant leaders in history, providing some facts and research. Have a look at the amazing pictures they did to go with their ruler 👑 

Episode 8 - Coronation special 👑

In this extra special edition of the Hope Historian Podcast, we're setting a challenge to the whole of the school! We'll discuss the historic event of King Charles III coronation and how we can celebrate it by designing his new emblem👑

Episode 9 - The greatest invention in history

We're back! Our first episode of 2023/24! It's been a while, but the Historians have been eager to share their thoughts on a very BIG question: what is the greatest invention in history?

In this part 1 episode, we've got some very interesting suggestions from Luke, Bella and Bethany and we introduce our newest Hope Historian, Ryan. We discuss the submitted entries for greatest invention in history and what the other think. Stay tuned for part 2, coming soon.

Episode 10 -The greatest inventions in history (part 2)

We're back with the follow up to our BIG question for this year: great inventions.

In this episode, Maddi and Paige put forward their suggestions and we discuss with Ryan why ancient inventions still have relevance on humankind.