At Brettenham, we want to encourage our children to develop a coherent and chronological knowledge of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We want them to be curious about the past and be able to ask questions from their own experience as well as their growing historical knowledge. 

We follow the National Curriculum for the teaching of history and children learn through focusing on the key historical concepts of:

• Understanding chronology
• Interpreting history through sources and artefacts
• Similarity, Difference and Significance
• Continuity and Change
• Cause and Consequence

Chronology runs through all of the history units of work. The other concepts are met through identified units. As the children move through the school, from Early Years to Year 6, their understanding of these concepts will deepen as they meet them again when studying different people, events and periods in history. Revisiting and making links to past learning is important so that children can increase their knowledge of history and develop a broader understanding of the subject. 

As a school we have built in studies of significant individuals from the past across different cultures, recognising their contribution to national and international achievements as well as studying some significant culturally important events, ensuring that our history curriculum reflects the diversity of our wider community and builds our children’s cultural capital. 

Vocabulary enrichment runs through our whole curriculum and history lessons provide an excellent opportunity to develop vocabulary that can be used in many other subject areas.

The children undertake visits to enhance their historical knowledge and widen their experience, for example visiting the British Museum, the Museum of London and visits to the local area.

Below you can view the Trust History Curriculum Intent, the key learning at each stage (composite knowledge) and progression documents for each year group.