Our Rakegate vision for History

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The aim of history teaching and learning at Rakegate Primary School is to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We teach children a sense of chronology, and through this they develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. They learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today. In our school history makes a significant contribution to citizenship education by teaching about how Britain developed as a democratic society. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by so doing, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem-solving. Throughout the key stages, children will develop historical vocabulary.

               

History at Rakegate

 

History at Rakegate focuses on enabling children to think as historians. We place an emphasis on examining historical artefacts and primary sources. In each key stage we give children the opportunity to visit sites of historical significance. We encourage visitors to come into the school and talk about their experiences of events in the past. We recognise and value the importance of stories in history teaching and we regard this as an important way of stimulating interest in the past. We focus on helping children understand that historical events can be interpreted in different ways and that they should always ask searching questions, such as ‘how do we know?’, about information they are given. The teaching of history is taught through Cornerstones, themed days and visits.

 

We recognise the fact that in all classes, there are children of widely different abilities in history, and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this by:

 

• Setting common tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses.

• Grouping children by ability in the room and setting different tasks for each ability group.

• Setting challenging tasks for children

• Providing resources of different complexity depending on the ability of the child.

• Using teaching assistants to support children individually or in groups.

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History National Curriculum Expectations

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History education will help pupils gain knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, look at evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.