At St Mary's we believe the study of history enables us to understand the present in the light of the past.  It explores the record of human achievement in all its forms and also how that record has been gathered, analysed and interpreted.  These two features of content and process are inseparable. History pervades every aspect of our lives and cultures.  It is present in one form or another in every part of the curriculum. Our History curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and will take our pupils on a journey through history, to stimulate their interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past.

The aim of our history curriculum is to: 

• Know and understand the history of changes in Britain as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day.
• Know how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world such as the nature of ancient civilisations and the expansion/dissolution of empires.
• Know the characteristic features of past non-European societies.
• Gain and deploy an historically grounded understanding of the substantive concepts of ‘power’, ‘invasion’, 'settlement', 'migration', ‘civilisation', 'tax/trade', 'achievements and follies of humanity' and ‘beliefs’
• Understand the disciplinary concepts of continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference, sources of evidence and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

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. Pupils will be engaged and enthused about the past and will have the opportunity to enrich their learning further by going on a variety of school visits throughout their school journey. Below is a copy of our curriculum overview that outlines what is taught in each year group.