Teaching History at Templars Primary School

At Templars Primary School, our bespoke History curriculum has been written with belonging at its very core. Pupils learn about the beginnings of our community; how the events of the past have helped to shape our present and how they will influence our future.

Beginning in the Early years, pupils will learn to talk about events from the past in their own living memory. They will begin to understand the concept of the past by discussing events that have already happened such as birthday parties and what I have done in the holidays.

Throughout KS1 the concept of the past will be developed by looking at events on a local and national level from the past that happened within our locality. They will begin to develop their sense of ‘belonging’ to our local area by investigating the origins of our city.

The teaching of history is structured using the big ideas that run strategically through each topic to ensure that the children can compare their knowledge of topic to another. The development of the big ideas is designed to provide the children with a framework upon which to ‘hang’ their learning to enable them to be able to effectively retain and retrieve the knowledge they have gained.

The big ideas for History are Location, Chronology, Culture and Religion, Significant Events, Significant People and Legacy. The result of implementing these big ideas is that the children will know where about in the world the culture they are studying originate from; they will know what else was happening in other parts of the world at the same time as well as knowing what happened before and after the period of time they are studying; how that society conducted its daily life and what they believed in; what the important events were during the historical period; who the important people were during the historical period; and what impact the period in history had on civilisation and  developments were made during this time period that we still rely on today.

At Templars, we believe that pupils deserve a broad and ambitious History curriculum, rich in knowledge which immerses pupils in a range of cultures and encourages enquiring minds to seek answers to their questions through historical enquiry.

History is a subject that forms the basis of our understanding of the culture in which we live as well as the wider world around us. Our curriculum gives the children the opportunity to explore issues at a local, national and international level from the ancient era through to the 20^th Century. The history curriculum is carefully sequenced to give the children a broad understanding of the chronological development of British history, as well as being able to make links to other societies, cultures and world events.

At Templars we aim to create curious learners that are inquisitive about the past and develop a passion for understanding how our lives today are influenced by people and events from the past. Pupils will develop a well-rounded knowledge of the past and its events, with the intention of improving every pupils’ cultural capital, understanding of the world around them including their own heritage by fostering a sense of ‘belonging’.

Sarah Leigh – History Subject Lead