The study of history not only helps us to understand why the world is the way it is today, but also teaches us the key skills of searching for evidence and questioning the facts and opinions we are presented with. It also provides a huge range of opportunities to develop our learning powers, particularly curiosity, independence and empathy. To find out more about what we teach and how learnng fits together, take a look at our skills and knowledge progression:  

• Skills and Knowledge Progression : History
   

The aim of our History curriculum

We want our children to have a rounded understanding of history by the time they leave our school. They need to be able to put historical events into context and order. They need to understand how and why events in the past have shaped the modern world and our place within it. And they need to have had first hand experiences of ‘meeting’ significant places, objects and artefacts (be that through visits to castles and stately homes, trips to museums and galleries or in-school workshops with experts), so that history can come to life for them. 

In order to do all of that, our children need access to a rich, carefully structured history curriculum. In Year 1, we explore the core idea of change over time, looking at ways in which life has changed over the last 100 (or so) years. In Year 2, this picture of history widens to include events from more distant times that have had profound impacts on modern life, to support children in beginning to recognise why an understanding of history is so important. Moving through KS2, the focus moves to building-up a picture of the early history of British Isles, from the Bronze and Iron Ages to 1066, via Roman rule, Anglo-Saxon settlement and Viking invasions. Alongside this, children also learn about events and changes in the world beyond our shores (including the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Mayans) and a key turning point in more modern history (the Battle of Britain).

Experiences we want every child to have at Bedwell:

• Visit significant national museums (eg. British Museum, Imperial War Museum, RAF Hendon) 
• Meet and talk to people who have lived through important moments in history (eg. WW2 evacuees) 
• Explore local museums to develop a stronger link to topics being studied (‘we found this just a mile from where you live’ ; ‘this is what life was like in our town 100 years ago’) 
• Have opportunities to handle historical artefacts and draw their own inferences and conclusions from them. 
• Experience what life was like in the more distant past through trips, themed days and (where possible) residential visits (eg. Celtic Harmony Camp) 
• Meet professional historians and talk to them about how they piece together clues to form a more complete picture of the past.

This term's learning

Year 3 and 4 - On the penultimate Friday of term, Years 3 and 4 visited Celtic Harmony Camp in Hertford to support their history topic, which focussed on life in Ancient Britain. They spent the day travelling from the Stone Age to the Iron Age by completing a series of workshops associated with each period. You can find out more about their adventure here.

Year 5 - Foxes visited the British Museum. They took part in a workshop with an expert from the Museum, who showed them how to spot particular gods, characters and stories by the clothes they wore and the objects they carried. They also got to see the priceless Parthenon Marbles first hand - and this has fed into their work on discussions, as they have begun debating whether or not they should be returned to Greece.

Year 4 - Badgers have been learning all about the Romans and their conquest of Britain. They looked at how the Roman Empire started, and what the Romans bought over to us that we still use today. It was so interesting to learn that roads, calendars and coins were something that the Romans started!