Our History Curriculum.

At Southbury, we want every child to become a curious, knowledgeable and thoughtful historian who can understand how the past has shaped the world they live in today.

History gives children the opportunity to explore the lives, experiences and achievements of people across different times and places. Through a carefully sequenced curriculum, children develop a rich body of historical knowledge and begin to understand the events, people, ideas and developments that have shaped Britain and the wider world.

We want children to know more about the past, make connections across time and think critically about the evidence we have available to us. They develop the vocabulary, concepts and skills needed to ask historical questions, investigate sources, understand different perspectives and reach informed conclusions.

Our History curriculum introduces children to a wide range of people, societies and civilisations, including histories that reflect the diversity of our world and the experiences of our own community. We want children to understand that history is not simply a collection of facts about the past, but a way of making sense of how people and societies have changed over time.

Our History Curriculum: History Seekers.

We use History Seekers primary History scheme, to support the planning and delivery of our History curriculum across Key Stages 1 and 2.

History Seekers provides a coherent, enquiry-led and knowledge-rich curriculum. Each unit is built around a key historical enquiry question, giving children a clear purpose for their learning and encouraging them to investigate the past rather than simply receive information about it. 

The curriculum develops both substantive knowledge — the people, events, places, concepts and chronology children need to know — and disciplinary knowledge, including how historians investigate sources, consider interpretations, identify cause and consequence, explore continuity and change and make judgements about historical significance. 

This means that children learn about history and how historians think.

Building Knowledge Over Time.

Our History curriculum is carefully sequenced so that children's understanding develops progressively from Year 1 to Year 6.

Chronology is an important thread throughout the curriculum. Children begin by developing an understanding of the past through personal and family history before gradually building a broader chronological understanding of British and world history. As they move through the school, they encounter periods and civilisations that allow them to make connections across time and recognise that different societies and events overlap and influence one another. 

Important concepts, vocabulary and historical knowledge are revisited and developed over time. Retrieval opportunities help children remember what they have learned, while new learning is deliberately connected to previous knowledge.

We want children to move beyond remembering isolated facts and develop an increasingly connected understanding of the past.

Historical Enquiry.

History at Southbury is about more than knowing what happened. Children learn to ask how we know and why it matters.

Through historical enquiry, children learn to:

• ask questions about the past;
• use and interpret a range of historical sources;
• identify similarities and differences;
• explore cause and consequence;
• recognise continuity and change over time;
• consider different historical interpretations and perspectives;
• make judgements about historical significance;
• use historical vocabulary accurately;
• communicate their ideas and conclusions clearly.

These skills are progressively developed throughout the school. History Seekers moves from children handling and interpreting simpler sources in Key Stage 1 towards evaluating multiple sources and interpretations in Key Stage 2.

We want children to understand that history is constructed from evidence and that historians sometimes reach different conclusions when interpreting the past.

The Southbury Historian.

By the time children leave Southbury, we want them to have developed a rich and connected understanding of the past.

They will know about significant people, events, societies and civilisations and understand how Britain and the wider world have changed over time. They will be able to place important events within a chronological framework and make connections across different periods of history.

They will be able to investigate sources, ask thoughtful historical questions, consider different perspectives and use evidence to form and communicate their own conclusions.

Most importantly, they will understand that the past is not simply something that happened a long time ago. It has shaped the world we live in today, the communities we belong to and the people we have become.

We want our children to be curious about the past, thoughtful about its complexities and confident in using what they learn from history to understand the world around them.