History

Inglehurst Infant School aims to provide a high-quality history education, which will enable our historians to develop a coherent knowledge and understanding of the history of Leicester, the UK and the wider world. We aim for children to build on previous knowledge, embed key concepts into their long-term memory, and apply them fluently. The children’s historical journey throughout the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 will be stimulating and enjoyable, ensuring that they develop a genuine love of the subject.  Through an engaging curriculum, we aim to inspire children’s curiosities about the past. Effective teaching will equip children with historical skills and knowledge, enabling them to ask questions, think critically, compare evidence, scrutinise arguments and improve perspective and judgement.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, History makes a significant contribution to the objectives of developing children’s knowledge and understanding of the world and their personal, social and emotional development, which is regularly addressed through both planned and spontaneous experiences in our Early Years provision. Themes covered in reception have been specifically chosen to prepare children for what follows in the rest of the school and to ensure there is progression and repetition where consolidation is required. Our History curriculum is plotted out in a rolling programme to cater for our mixed year groups. This enables us to fully immerse children in a topic and teach knowledge and skills in more depth. In ks1, topics are chosen that meet national curriculum requirements, build upon EYFS learning, are relevant to the children’s experience and have local significance where possible. 

The use of subject specific vocabulary and historical terms is identified and taught explicitly. This vocabulary is available on classroom displays and knowledge organisers. Cross-curricular links are naturally occurring due to the topic led aspect of our curriculum. This allows children to make links and apply historical skills and knowledge throughout the curriculum which provides retrieval and consolidation opportunities. High quality texts are utilised to support reading and writing also linked to the topic to deepen understanding and give opportunities for further application of knowledge in other curriculum areas. Within our curriculum, we have planned opportunities for learning history through trips to the local area, historical sites and museums. It is important at Inglehurst Infants for pupils to be exposed to these experiences in order to develop their curiosity, deepen their understanding of historical concepts and apply this in history lessons and other contexts. We use artefacts and real resources within every topic to stimulate curiosity within the learning environment and give the pupils opportunities to observe and handle historic artefacts. Pupils are taught to observe these primary and secondary sources, identifying if they reliable.