History

Children learn the values of respect, tolerance and positive values and attitudes through the study of the past.

Intent – What we expect the children to learn: 

At Deansbrook Junior School, we have chosen a history curriculum which is underpinned by the best evidence about how pupils learn. The units are intelligently sequenced to ensure that key knowledge is retained and developed over time.  The history curriculum at Key Stage 2 seeks to give pupils a solid foundation and broad overview in some of the most important periods, events and themes in British and world history. It is comprehensive but necessarily selective. The curriculum gives pupils a strong grounding in British history, taught chronologically from the first settlements through Roman Britain, the Vikings, Anglo-Saxons (Y3), the medieval period (Y5) and up to the Industrial Revolution and touching on Britain during the two World Wars (Y6).

While studying these periods, the units explore themes of change and continuity, perspective and power.  The five units exploring world history have been carefully selected to provide global coverage and introduce a number of themes. The unit on Ancient Greece (Y3) introduces key ideas around power and its legitimacy and the Shang Dynasty (Y3) gives insight into the progress and achievements in China at a time when there was much less occurring in Europe. The unit on the Middle East (Y5) gives pupils an overview of the history of this vitally important region and the reasons for the intractable problems faced today.  The Benin Kingdom units (Y5) have been included to challenge the narrative often prevalent in the teaching of African history – celebrating a highly successful civilisation while introducing the slave trade. Finally, the unit on Civil Rights (Y6) provides a survey of the way black people have been treated in the USA, through the Civil Rights movement and Dr King, right the way to the Black Lives Matter agenda. 

By bringing pupils up to the present day – in the case of Civil Rights and the Middle East (Y5) – the curriculum demonstrates the importance of past events in shaping the world of today. Throughout the curriculum connections and comparisons are made between events and individuals.