At Adelaide Primary School, our approach to teaching History is designed to ignite curiosity, deepen understanding, and foster critical thinking about the past. We aim to provide our pupils with rich, engaging, and thought-provoking experiences that bring history to life, helping them make connections between the past and the present, and developing their understanding of how history shapes the world today.
We believe that History should be an inspiring and dynamic subject that allows pupils to explore a wide range of periods, events, and historical figures. Our curriculum is carefully structured to build knowledge and skills progressively, ensuring pupils develop a secure understanding of key historical concepts such as chronology, cause and consequence, and historical significance. By weaving together local, national, and world history, we ensure that pupils gain a broad and balanced perspective on the past, from ancient civilizations to modern history.
Within our lessons, we place a strong emphasis on encounters with historical sources, encouraging pupils to engage with evidence and develop their skills of historical enquiry. Through the use of primary and secondary sources, as well as discussions and debates, pupils learn to ask questions, analyse evidence, and evaluate different perspectives, helping them to become confident, independent historians.
Our history curriculum also encourages pupils to make connections across time and space, exploring how historical events and trends influence and are influenced by broader social, cultural, and political contexts. We believe in the importance of interpreting history in a meaningful way, which helps pupils understand that history is not simply a series of facts to be memorized but a way of understanding the world, ourselves, and others.
We aim to make history lessons engaging and relevant by using a variety of teaching methods, including interactive lessons, field trips, drama, and role-play, all of which bring the past to life and allow pupils to experience history in an immersive way. We also encourage pupils to explore local history, providing them with opportunities to connect with their own heritage and see how the past has shaped their immediate community.
Through high-quality teaching, we aim to ensure that all pupils at Adelaide Primary School not only gain a deep knowledge of the past but also develop the historical thinking skills needed to analyse, interpret, and understand history in all its complexity. Our history curriculum fosters a love of learning about the past, helping pupils to appreciate its relevance to the present and prepare them to engage thoughtfully with the future.
What do pupils think about our history curriculum –
“I liked the boat and he (Columbus) sailed around the world. He looked at a map.” (FS2)
“I love learning about WW2. I liked trying on all the different things. The gas mask was horrible!” (Y4)
“My favourite thing is the Stone Age. I think I know a lot about it. I liked learning about how people lived then” (Y3)
