History

'Learning God's Way'

Intent

At St Mary’s C of E Primary School, we want our children to be curious, confident, and thoughtful historians. Our History curriculum, delivered through the Kapow Primary scheme, encourages pupils to explore the past, make connections, and understand how the world has changed over time.

We aim to inspire awe and wonder about people, events, and societies from local, national, and global history. Pupils develop the confidence to ask questions, think critically, and analyse evidence, while gaining a secure understanding of chronology and key historical concepts such as power, migration, empire, society, and culture.

Through studying History, children learn to appreciate different perspectives, empathise with others, and reflect on human achievements and challenges. By the time they leave St Mary’s, pupils are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and curiosity to explore the past and make informed connections to the world around them.

Implementation

At St Mary’s C of E Primary School, our History curriculum is carefully structured to make learning engaging, meaningful, and accessible for all pupils. Using the Kapow Primary History scheme, lessons are designed around enquiry-based questions, allowing children to think and work like historians. They investigate, interpret, evaluate, and communicate their findings, developing both their historical knowledge and their disciplinary skills.

Children in EYFS begin by exploring their own experiences and comparing characters from stories, including historical figures, to understand how individual lives fit into broader historical narratives. In Key Stages 1 and 2, pupils build a secure understanding of chronology, developing a “mental timeline” that helps them make connections, spot trends, and compare events across local, national, and global history.

The curriculum carefully interweaves disciplinary concepts—such as change and continuity, cause and consequence, historical significance, and sources of evidence—with substantive concepts including power, trade, invasion, and settlement. These concepts are revisited in different contexts as pupils progress, allowing knowledge and understanding to deepen over time.

Lessons are hands-on, varied, and supported by knowledge organisers to ensure pupils recall key facts, concepts, and vocabulary. Guidance is provided for staff to adapt lessons to meet the needs of all learners, ensuring that every child can access and enjoy History. Opportunities to extend learning are also built in, including videos and resources showcasing careers in history and heritage, inspiring children to see the wider relevance of the subject.

Through this approach, pupils develop not only a rich understanding of the past but also the skills, curiosity, and confidence to explore History independently and thoughtfully.

Impact

At St Mary’s C of E Primary School, the impact of our History curriculum is closely monitored through a combination of formative and summative assessment. Teachers use lesson guidance, skill catchers, and end-of-unit knowledge quizzes to ensure pupils are meeting learning objectives and building a secure understanding of the past.

Through the Kapow Primary History scheme, pupils leave school as confident, enquiring learners who can ask thoughtful questions, analyse evidence, and make informed judgments about the past. They develop critical thinking and analytical skills, enabling them to understand cause and effect, continuity and change, and similarities and differences across historical periods.

By the end of their time at St Mary’s, pupils will:

• Know and understand the history of Britain, how people’s lives have shaped the nation, and how Britain has interacted with the wider world.

• Appreciate the history of the wider world, including ancient civilisations, empires, non-European societies, and human achievements.

• Develop a deep understanding of key historical concepts such as power, invasion, settlement, migration, civilisation, religion, trade, society, and culture.

• Form evidence-based historical arguments and structured accounts through enquiry-based learning.

• Recognise significant individuals, inventions, and events that have shaped both past and present.

• Understand how historians investigate and interpret the past, and how historical interpretations are constructed.

• Make connections across periods of history, understanding chronology and trends over time.

Through this approach, pupils develop both the knowledge and skills to succeed in their future education and beyond, meeting Early Learning Goals in EYFS and the expectations of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2, while becoming thoughtful, informed, and curious young historians.