History at KWPS

Subject Leader: Mr D Parry

What History Looks Like at KWPS

EYFS:
In the Early Years, History is taught through play, stories, discussion and exploration of children’s own lives and experiences. Learning focuses on understanding the past and present through familiar routines, celebrations, family history and storytelling. Children begin to use time-related language and explore how things have changed, with learning recorded through floor books and continuous provision.

KS1 & KS2:
History is taught through structured weekly lessons using enquiry questions that encourage pupils to think critically, ask questions and investigate the past. Lessons include discussion, drama, role play, artefact handling, timelines, research and extended writing opportunities.

Enrichment:
History learning is enriched through local history studies, visits, visitors, themed days and practical experiences such as artefact workshops and historical role play. A bi-annual local history project ensures pupils regularly revisit the history of their local area.

Assemblies:
Assemblies support historical understanding through national commemorations, remembrance events and significant historical anniversaries, helping pupils to place learning within a wider context.

Cross-curricular links:
History is linked with Geography, English, Art, DT and Computing. Pupils use literacy skills to debate and explain historical events, and computing skills to research, present and analyse sources.

Inclusive practice:
All pupils access the History curriculum. Learning is adapted to meet the needs of all learners through scaffolding, visual support, differentiated tasks and targeted adult support where needed.

The Intent of our History Curriculum

At Kirkham & Wesham Primary School, History plays a vital role in helping children understand the world around them and their place within it. We aim to develop pupils’ curiosity about the past and enable them to make sense of how historical events, people and decisions have shaped the world today.

Our History curriculum is designed to:
✔ Develop a strong sense of chronology
✔ Build knowledge of Britain’s past and the wider world
✔ Encourage critical thinking and enquiry
✔ Help pupils understand change, continuity, cause and consequence
✔ Foster respect for different cultures, societies and beliefs

Children begin with their own lives and local history before expanding their learning to national and global history, allowing knowledge and understanding to build progressively.

The Implementation of our History Curriculum

History at KWPS is taught through a carefully sequenced and progressive curriculum, aligned to the National Curriculum and underpinned by our detailed progression document - due to be fully released Autumn 2026.

Curriculum Structure

  • EYFS: Understanding the World – Past and Present

  • KS1: Changes within living memory, significant individuals, events beyond living memory and local history

  • KS2: British history from the Stone Age to modern Britain, world civilisations and non-European societies

Key Features of Implementation

Enquiry-Led Learning
Each unit is driven by a key question, such as:

  • What caused the change from hunter-gatherers to settled farmers?

  • Was Alfred the Great a good leader?

  • What impact did Henry VIII have on Britain?

Chronology and Timelines
Children regularly revisit timelines to place new learning within a broader historical context, developing a clear understanding of chronology across periods.

Historical Knowledge
Pupils study:

  • British history (e.g. Stone Age, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Tudors, WWII)

  • Ancient civilisations (e.g. Egypt, Shang Dynasty, Ancient Greece)

  • World history and non-European societies (e.g. Incas, Golden Age of Islam)

Historical Skills
Children learn to:

  • Ask and answer historical questions

  • Use and evaluate sources of evidence

  • Understand cause and consequence

  • Identify similarities and differences

  • Recognise continuity and change

  • Use historical vocabulary accurately

Vocabulary Development
Key historical vocabulary is explicitly taught and revisited throughout each unit, enabling pupils to communicate their understanding clearly and confidently.

The Impact of our History Curriculum

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils at KWPS will:

✔ Have a secure understanding of British and world history
✔ Use timelines confidently to explain chronology
✔ Explain historical events using evidence
✔ Understand how the past has shaped modern Britain and the wider world
✔ Use historical vocabulary accurately
✔ Think critically about sources and interpretations

Our pupils leave KWPS as curious historians who can question, analyse and reflect on the past to better understand the present.

National Curriculum Aims for History

The National Curriculum for History aims to ensure that pupils:

  • Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and the wider world

  • Know and understand significant aspects of history

  • Understand key historical concepts such as change, cause, similarity and difference

  • Use historical enquiry to ask and answer questions

  • Understand how evidence is used to make historical claims

At KWPS, these aims are embedded across all history units and year groups.

Assessment

Assessment in History is used to monitor pupil progress and inform teaching.

Teachers use ongoing formative assessment through questioning, observation and pupil responses to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching.

Progress is monitored through:

  • pupil voice
  • class discussions
  • teacher observations

Assessment is used to identify gaps in learning and ensure all pupils make progress.

Progression of Skills

Chronology

  • EYFS: Children begin to understand the concept of time through their own experiences, using simple language such as “before”, “after” and “now”.
  • Key Stage 1: Pupils place events and artefacts in order and begin to use simple timelines.
  • Lower Key Stage 2: Pupils use timelines more confidently, placing events and periods in chronological order using dates.
  • Upper Key Stage 2: Pupils develop a secure understanding of chronology, identifying periods of change and making links across different historical eras.

Historical Enquiry

  • EYFS: Children ask simple questions about the past through stories and familiar experiences.
  • Key Stage 1: Pupils ask and answer questions about the past using sources such as photographs, artefacts and stories.
  • Lower Key Stage 2: Pupils begin to use a range of sources to investigate the past and suggest possible answers.
  • Upper Key Stage 2: Pupils use a wide range of evidence to ask questions, test ideas and draw informed conclusions about the past.

Interpretation and Understanding

  • EYFS: Children talk about similarities and differences between the past and present.
  • Key Stage 1: Pupils describe events and recognise that people in the past lived differently.
  • Lower Key Stage 2: Pupils explain causes and consequences of events and describe changes over time.
  • Upper Key Stage 2: Pupils analyse different interpretations of the past and understand that history can be viewed in different ways.

Communication

  • EYFS: Children talk about their experiences and begin to use simple time-related language.
  • Key Stage 1: Pupils use basic historical vocabulary to describe the past.
  • Lower Key Stage 2: Pupils communicate their understanding using appropriate historical terms.
  • Upper Key Stage 2: Pupils present and justify their ideas clearly using precise historical vocabulary and evidence.

Inclusion and Accessibility

Our History curriculum is designed to be accessible to all pupils. We are committed to ensuring that every child can participate and succeed.

We meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and SEND regulations by:

  • adapting teaching to meet individual needs
  • using scaffolding and visual support
  • providing targeted support
  • maintaining high expectations for all learners
  • Cultural content and language activities reflect diversity and global awareness

Find Out More

If you would like more information about the History curriculum, please contact:   

Mr D Parry  – History Subject Leader
Enquiries can be made via the school office.

 

History

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