Holy Trinity

History has always been held in high regard at Holy Trinity Primary School. We pride ourselves on our creative learning environment, enrichment and classroom displays. The history curriculum at Holy Trinity makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the history of their locality.

 Topics are informed by the national curriculum and are sensitive to children’s interests, as well as the context of the local area. The history curriculum at Holy Trinity is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy.

 In line with the national curriculum 2014, the curriculum at Holy Trinity aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world which helps to stimulate pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past;
• Are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement;
• Begin 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.

HISTORY THEMES OVERVIEW

Topics are chosen to reflect our substantive concepts of Society and Community, Exploration and Invasion, Power and Conflict and Disaster. Topics are placed in year groups dependent on National Curriculum requirements, our local area, children's needs, voices and the skills to be taught. We are also very proud that every class in school goes on at least 1 History enhancement trip to fully enrich our curriculum

History in the Early Years

As children begin their Historical journey at Holy Trinity we begin with the child and their family. We believe this child centred approach enables the child to discover a little more about who they are. Children can talk about who is in their lives and if this has changed over time. Through making learning personal, children at this age will be able to make greater links in learning and understanding. Therefore, pupils will first learn about their own personal history, to begin to understand that past events have gone before them. This will provide a foundation for chronological understanding and so knowledge about events prior to their birth can be explained and understood by the children. 

Following the pupils learning about their own personal history, with a greater understanding of the passing of time, pupils will be able to begin to understand events which occurred before their birth and understand that in the past, things that were looked differently than things that are today. Children will link their understanding of Fairy Tale characters eg: Kings and Queens to what a real King or Queen might look like, what their roles and responsibilities might be and where they might live. To ensure these concepts of power, society and community are embedded enrichment is purposefully planned in. Taking the children to a fairy tale tower where children dress up like a King or Queen and role play fully embedding the concept of the past being different to the present.

Have a look at our enrichment and class based work below

Early Years Unit Overviews

For more information on the units covered in Foundation Stage please refer below

History in Year 1

As the children enter Year 1 their learning in EYFS fully enables them to make their next steps in historical knowledge and skills. This is because they have been immersed in both their own family history comparing and contrasting characters from stories, including figures from the past. 

Their next step in their historical journey is to enquire 'How long toys have existed?' This is one of the earliest topics to be taught at KS1 following on from Myself. We teach this topic on the run up to Christmas as it engages children’s senses, fires their imagination and encourages lots of interaction. The focus is emphatically on looking at concepts such as similarity and difference as well as old and new and change through time. We also repeat the all-important question ‘How do we know?’ twice to introduce the idea of evidence. Pupils develop the vocabulary to talk about times past and the higher achievers even start discussing change over time.

This topic prepares children for learning about their first significant historical event 'The Great Fire of London' Children learn to explore what came before us by developing our research and enquiry skills. This topic provides clear contrasts between then and now, it also gives the experience of using accessible forms of historical evidence. Children are also ready to explore the concept of cause and consequence. The topic provides all the learning the children need at this stage of their journey. Again, we enrich this topic with a trip to 'Fireground' Greater Manchester's Fire Museum where children explore artefacts and bring the whole story of the fire to life. This holds real importance to us as a school as supports our town's fire museum and help children's understanding of the Fire service that helps Rochdale's community today.

Year 1's final unit of History learning is 'How do we know what seaside holidays were like 100 years ago -if there is no one alive to tell us?' This unit investigates the seaside as a holiday destination compared to looking at the creatures that live there in Reception. The unit allows pupils to use their research skills to compare holidays in the past to their own experiences of holidays.  It looks again at the Victorian era so making links to the Toys topic. This is the reason for completing this unit last in Year 1. It also gives more opportunities to create basic timelines, as the children now are aware events within and beyond living memory.

Please see below for our enhancements and class based work.

Year 1 Unit Overviews

For more information on the units covered in Year 1 please refer below

History in Year 2

As children enter Year 2 they are beginning to have some basic chronology and some very basic enquiry skills based on the evidence in front of them. Beginning their Year 2 study is a close look at the local area and places they are familiar with. Children will use their basic knowledge of the past to make personal links to events and places in our town. The studying of how Hollingworth Lake was used in the Victorian times builds upon their prior learning about holidays in Year 1. The children will be able to imagine themselves at the lake as it is a place they are familiar with. Children will also be able to make secure links to images of the town centre and the modes of transport in the past as these places are places they visit and they will have used. When children learn about the first Co-op, they will easily make the link to the Co-op shops they go in on a regular basis and will be able to confidently describe how these shops have evolved in the present day, as well as having a sense of pride of what our local area in known for. Children visit the first Co-op and take part in a workshop, imagining what it might have been like in Rochdale at this time.

Year 2 Unit Overviews

For more information on the units covered in Year 2 please refer below

History in Year 3

Upon entering Year 3 children have experienced a range of significant events, individuals and periods in our local and national history. At this point, children are equipped to begin learning about world history alongside British History. We begin Year 3 with a Pre History study of the Stone Age to Iron Age, closely followed by Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxons. The main reason for this order is chronology. We believe it scaffolds the children's understanding to work in time order at this part of the children historical journey. Beginning with the Stone Age offers lots of great opportunities to explore two major historical concepts, change and continuity. It also allow us to keep posing the at all-important question; how can we possibly know what it was like so many years ago before man recorded his thoughts in writing. To enrich this topic children are taken to 'Creswell Craggs' where they not only view stone age artefacts, but visit a stone age cave meet its 'resident' and learn some survival skills for themselves by building a tent and a fire.

After experiencing the Stone Age to Iron Age periods children keep to Chronology and study 'Roman Britain.' Children will know how we find out about prehistory and know how to use sources to inform their historical interpretations. The children absolutely love learning about this period. We also look at our local to see what impact the Romans had in the North West. The enhancing trip to Muton Park is a great favourite at Holy Trinity. During this amazing day children are Roman recruits. Dressing up, spending the day in a replica fort under the control of the centurion. A fabulous way to bring all the learning to life.

Finally, Children learn about what happened in Britain after the Romans left, with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. This allows children to see the development of British history in chronological order. Whilst most lessons will centre around comparing Anglo-Saxons, references to the Romans will be made to contextualise their understanding and to see how, in many ways, Britain actually regressed. This will give the children to opportunity to directly compare life in Roman Britain to the Anglo Saxon Age. This is placed before Year 4’s unit on the Vikings as Anglo-Saxons’ arrived to Britain before the Vikings. This topic will then provide the knowledge needed for more comparative study in Year 4 and 5 with the Vikings, Ancient Maya and Ancient Greece.

Year 3 Unit Overviews

For more information on the units covered in Year 3 please refer below

History in Year 4

Year 4 Unit Overviews

History in Year 5

Year 5 Unit Overviews

History in Year 6

Unit Overviews in Year 6

KS2 Timelines

All children use the same timeline as they explore the historical periods they study. These are stuck in the front of their history books for easy access in every lesson. Timelines are created in a more personal way in FS and KS1 to enable a more meaningful experience for our younger children.

Love all things historical? Check out these websites:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks2-history/zfbwhbk

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks1-history/z6h3jhv

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zkqmhyc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zcw76sg