“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Intent
At St. Margaret Mary’s Infant School, our History curriculum is delivered through an engaging, creative, and topic-based approach. We aim to nurture children’s cultural, social, moral, and spiritual development by helping them understand the past and its influence on the present.
Our intent is to:
– Inspire curiosity and wonder about the past, both within and beyond living memory.
– Develop children’s understanding of British history and the wider world.
– Encourage reflection on historical events and figures that have shaped society.
– Support children in forming a sense of identity rooted in historical awareness and Catholic values.
Implementation
History is taught across the school through a varied and progressive curriculum. In Key Stage 1, our scheme of work enables children to think and work like historians, developing key skills and knowledge across a range of units. These units are carefully mapped to ensure full coverage of National Curriculum objectives, with specific topics allocated to Year One and Year Two.
In addition to planned units, children engage in discrete history learning through special events such as Remembrance Day, feast days, Black History Month and national or local commemorations.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception), history is introduced through a holistic, play-based approach. Children explore historical concepts through storytelling, role play, artefacts, and seasonal themes, supported by adult-led activities that highlight changes over time and personal history.
Children are taught to:
– Ask thoughtful questions about the past.
– Begin to think critically and reflect on different perspectives.
– Consider historical evidence and its reliability.
– Explore and express their own point of view.
Teaching is inclusive, engaging, and rooted in the SMMI Mission Statement ‘Loving, Learning and Growing together with Jesus’.
Impact
Through our history curriculum, children begin to develop as confident, reflective historians. They gain an increasing understanding of their own identity and the world around them, informed by:
– Knowledge of significant events and people from British and global history.
– An understanding of historical enquiry and interpretation.
– Awareness of the complexity of people’s lives, including their motivations, challenges, failures, and successes.
– Appreciation of change over time and the concept of chronology.
– A growing recognition of diversity within societies and cultures.
Please see our progression map, to find out more about how children progress in their learning from Nursery through to Year 2.
Please follow the link below to find out, how our children continue to progress through their knowledge of history in the junior school. St Margaret Mary’s Catholic Junior School: History (smmj.co.uk)