Our school vision is to inspire children, their families and our staff to SHINE, LEARN, BELIEVE and BELONG so our children achieve their very best, leaving us as confident, happy, resilient learners: With knowledge anything is possible. We recognise that our pupils need to explore the past and how it affects our lives today through studying different periods in history and the common themes and concepts reoccur. 

We believe that a well rounded history curriculum will allow children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world  Our history curriculum is designed so that children gain this knowledge as they progress through the school. In addition to this, we recognise the important role that history plays in preparing our children with skills that they can use for life, raising their aspirations, being critical thinkers, understanding how to be a good and responsible citizen, understanding change and providing a context in which to understand themselves and others. This is extremely important for children at our academy in allowing them access to a much wider world than they have access to in their everyday lives.  We also recognise that it is important for children to be given a broad view of history, including non-European civilisations.

We plan and teach our history lessons mostly through the Dimensions Curriculum, using the themes of Conservation, Culture, Conflict and Communication which run through each year group.  Through our history curriculum, we strive to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past. Our curriculum provides children with opportunities to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Through the teaching of History, we endeavour to teach children 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. We believe that teaching History in this way is important in broadening children's horizons, challenging preconceived ideas and developing life skills in order to prepare them for high school and beyond.

History lessons are underpinned by these big ideas: Chronology, Location, Cause, Consequence, Change and Continuity, Similarity and Difference, Historical Significance, Sources and Evidence, and Historical Interpretations. These big ideas focus on not only providing children with knowledge but also developing historical skills, allowing them to know more and do more, and encouraging children to work as historians. History units are planned to ensure that lessons are built upon the big ideas and staff will try to make links between current and previous learning, both in history and in other curricular areas in order for children to develop their understanding of this subject.

We intend for our children to have real life experiences and learn about history in an active and creative way and therefore visitors and trips will form a fundamental part of our curriculum. This will enable our pupils to gain more cultural capital, enriching their understanding and turning them into confident and enthusiastic learners and critical thinkers. 

Through our history curriculum our pupils will have the skills to: 

Learn – know and understand about different civilisations and periods of history in their local area, the UK and around the world

Believe – be inspired by different people from history and their achievements

Belong – recognise similarities between people of the past and legacy

Shine - be critical thinkers who embrace their opportunities