History

'Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.' Deuteronomy 32:7

History 2023-24

Welcome to History at SSMJ

At SSMJ we follow the National Curriculum Programme of Study for History. Our history topics consider the children’s interests, as well as the context of the local area. The history curriculum at SSMJ is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy.

Historical Concepts

Our curriculum is refined yearly, but it maintains a consistent knowledge base to ensure conceptual progression. We have identified a set of key historical concepts; Substantive Knowledge and Disciplinary Concepts, that children will repeatedly revisit throughout their time at SSMJ. For example, children are introduced to migration in EYFS and then revisit in Year 2, Year 3, Year 5 and Year 6.

Our teaching of history is driven by an enquiry approach that seeks to capitalise on children's curiosity and prior learning. Units of work are structured around an overarching historical enquiry to ensure teaching is focused and children are working towards a clearly defined outcome. The overarching enquiry is often broken down into small sub-enquiries to give children a sense of incremental progression and make learning large chunks of content more manageable.