At Lessness Heath we aim to provide a broad and balanced History curriculum which underpins the key principles of our overall school intent. We believe pupils should have experience of and an understanding of, the past from our local history to British, European and world history, helping them to understand where they and others have come from in order to help them think about choices for the future.

Our History curriculum is designed to develop our children’s curiosity and fascination about the past and work as historians. We feel passionately that our children should be learning the skills that real-life historians use and through this learn about the amazing past that has brought us to the current day. By linking learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, and be able to communicate historically.

We are committed to equipping children with the key characteristics they need to help them become historians. This involves giving them an understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods whilst endeavouring to empower individuals with the ability to think critically about history and communicate their ideas confidently throughout each year group. We develop their ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by posing and reflecting on questions and also the importance of having respect for historical evidence from a wide range of perspectives and making use of it to support their learning.

We feel that all historians in our school should be aiming to:

• Have an excellent knowledge of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past.
• Have a comprehensive understanding of the chronology of historical events.
• Have a solid base of historical vocabulary.
• Develop a sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
• Develop the ability to apply questioning skills, as well as following lines of enquiry.
• Develop the ability to make critical use of historical evidence.
• Develop the ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences.