GAWBER HISTORIANS...

"History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people's lives, the processes of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time."

- National Curriculum 

HISTORY AT GAWBER PRIMARY SCHOOL 

The Gawber History Curriculum is a bespoke, progressive curriculum, designed to focus on local, British and World History from EYFS to Year 6. Carefully chosen substantive concepts run throughout, drawing links between each area of the curriculum, allowing the children the ability to obtain a deep understanding of each area of the history curriculum and the impact this has on their lives today. The Gawber History Curriculum is a geographically broad curriculum, exploring the local histories and the regional diversity of the British Isles, as well as the studies of other places and societies beyond. It develops the children's understanding of the interconnectedness of developments in different places and how this has an impact on the world they live in today.  

At Gawber, children begin their history education in EYFS and the knowledge and vocabulary they develop, particularly through the 'understanding the world' area of learning, enables them to access the history content planned in Key Stage 1 and beyond. The ambitious goals of the National Curriculum are covered through our Gawber History Curriculum, however we do aim to exceed these expectations also. For example, in response to the interest our children had around the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, and due to the make up of our cohorts, we felt it was important to include the history of African-American discrimination within our curriculum, challenging any misconceptions and modelling accurate knowledge.  Another way in which we feel that we exceed the National Curriculum is that we provide additional units to complement other areas of the Gawber Curriculum (an example of this is studying the history of Pompeii to complement the Geography unit of natural disasters) thus allowing our children to understand the impact that history has on the current world that we live in.

The historical figures included in our curriculum ensure that there is a balance of focus on both male and female role models. This is to help ensure that there is a culture of ‘everyone can do’ at Gawber School.

Our Local History Curriculum has been meticulously planned through collaboration with The Gawber Local History Group, promoting a love of our community and helping the children to fully immerse themselves in the motto of ‘a caring family school’. 

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

- know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world

- know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind

- gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’

- understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses

- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed

- gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Key Knowledge for Gawber Historians: 

• Knowledge of Significant Periods
• Knowledge of Significant Concepts
• Knowledge of Significant People
• Knowledge of Key Events
• Knowledge of Chronology
• Knowledge of key aspects of World History
• Knowledge of Key aspects of British History
• Knowledge of local History

At Gawber, children make progress in history by developing their knowledge of the past and by developing their knowledge about how historians investigate the past. Children become increasingly aware of chronology and relate their chronological knowledge to broader developments and the features of different historical periods. Concepts that have particular meanings in different contexts have been chosen so that the children can discuss these in depth first in the context of a historical period but also in the context of a historical narrative or argument. 

Children read and hear appropriately challenging texts in history. We know that by securing a good knowledge in history, our children can help strengthen their comprehension of other subjects too.