Aldingbourne Primary School
HISTORY POLICY
INTRODUCTION
History is a foundation subject in the National Curriculum. This
document outlines the purpose, nature and management of the history
taught in the school.
AIMS
The school aims to provide historical education to:
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Enable children to develop a sense of identity through learning
about the development of Britain, Europe and the world.
Introduce children to what is involved in understanding and
interpreting the past
Help the children to develop a sense of enquiry and to extend their
knowledge of past events.
EXPECTATIONS AND ENTITLEMENT
Early Years
In Early Years the children are introduced to the concept of passing
time. Through topic and PSHCE lessons they learn about the lives and
lifestyles of people in the past and they are encouraged to talk about
their own past.
Key Stage 1
In Key Stage 1, history is about the lives and lifestyles of people in the
past and about famous people and events, including those from British
history.
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Children will learn about familiar and famous people and about
events from the past in Britain and elsewhere.
They will look for similarities and differences between life today
and in the past and use common words associated with the passing
of time.
Children will talk and write about what happened and why people
acted as they did.
They will find out about the past using different sources of
information.
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Aldingbourne Primary School
Key Stage 2
In Key Stage 2, history is about people and important events and
developments from recent and more distant times in the locality, in
Britain and in other parts of the world.
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Children will find out about people, famous people and groups of
people and important events and developments from recent and
more distant times, making links across different periods of
history since prehistoric times.
They will learn about different aspects of local, British and world
history.
Children will discuss why things happened or changed and the
results.
They will carry out historical enquiries using a variety of sources of
information and look at how and why the past is interpreted in
different ways.
Children will use their understanding of chronology and historical
terms when talking or writing about the past.
TEACHING METHODS AND ORGANISATION
History is taught through a programme of termly topics. Work is
collected together in topic books. The precise details of history coverage
are set out in the schemes of work.
Where possible children are given opportunities to work from
experiences that enable history to “come alive”. They participate in roleplay activities. They visit specific sites of historical interest, e.g.
Fishbourne Roman Palace, Aldingbourne Church, Tangmere Aviation
Museum. They take part in workshops that help to create images of life
in the past, e.g. Roman Domestic Workshop at Fishbourne and various
theatre workshops visit.
Children are also given opportunities to work in the classroom using
artefacts which originate from the period being studied, e.g. Victorian,
Roman collections.
From time to time members of the local community are able to visit the
school in order to relate their own personal experiences and knowledge
relating to a particular period in history, e.g. Crime and Punishment in
Victorian times.
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Aldingbourne Primary School
History is continually experienced through the teaching of other
subjects, e.g. days, months, time in Maths; important scientific
discoveries e.g. moon landing; music and art.
Work is planned to enable children to participate fully, irrespective of
ability or gender.
RESOURCES
The school has collections of artefacts relating to particular topics. It
has a well-stocked library. In addition to this, teachers regularly use the
West Sussex School Library Loan Service to increase the resources
available.
This policy was agreed by the staff in November 2002 and will be
reviewed annually.
Date of last review – June 2014.
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