HISTORY 

We want children at Haydn to become reflective historians who are well-equipped with knowledge and the skills of enquiry. We want them to understand their place in the world and that they have an important role in shaping the future. Our history curriculum is comprehensive, diverse and interesting. We want to ensure the lens through which children learn about history is multi-faceted: children learn about significant events and people and place these within our British chronological narrative. Children will understand important first order concepts such as civilisation, parliament and peasantry that define our world and how these have developed over time. Second order concepts such as cause and consequence and historical enquiry are another lens we explore through ensuring that children think critically and reflectively about their learning. We strive to ensure our history curriculum reflects the diverse country and community in which we live. We want our children to understand the events in a small city such as Nottingham can have ripples throughout the world. When children leave Haydn we want them to leave as historians eager to explore the past whilst thinking forwards to the future.  

A high-quality history education equips pupils to think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. A knowledge of Britain’s past, and our place in the world helps us understand the challenges of our own time. 

The aims of history education at Haydn are: 

• To foster pupils’ enjoyment and interest in learning about the past 

• To develop children’s knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past: how people and events have shaped the nation.  

• To secure pupils’ sense of chronology so that they understand British history as a coherent, chronological narrative and are also familiar with the broad outlines of European and world history. 

• To gain historical perspective by learning about first order concepts in different contexts.  

• To develop children’s understanding of important historical concepts and vocabulary to develop their critical skills and ability to discuss their learning effectively.  

• To gain disciplinary knowledge of key second order concepts so that they develop their skills of enquiry:  

Change and continuity - understanding how and why change occurs in history, why and how things stay the same and analysing trends across time. 

Cause and consequence - the identification and description of reasons for and results of historical events, situations and changes studied in the past 

Similarity and difference - the ability to identify and explain similarities and differences within and across periods and societies studied 

Handling evidence - understanding the methods of enquiry for finding out about the past from historical evidence and how these can be used to make historical claims 

Historical interpretations - the study of historical evidence dating from after an event, period or the lifetime of a person, reflecting back on it or them from the perspective of a later time. This includes understanding how historical interpretations have been constructed and suggesting reasons why they may differ. 

Historical significance - understanding and suggesting reasons why events, periods, societies and people may be considered historically significant