27.01.2023

History across the whole school.

I have had the pleasure of dropping into history lessons, looking at the children’s fantastic history books and learning from their beautiful historical displays recently. It was wonderful to see all the amazing learning going on across the school from Nursery to Year 6.

In the Nursery, the children were looking at their own photographs of their Baptism and discussing how different they are now and how much they have changed!

In Reception, they were discovering the history of the Christmas pudding. What it was like originally and how it has changed over time. They got very creative when decorating their own Christmas puddings.

In Year 1, the children have been looking at their family history. They were looking at differences and some similarities between a variety of things that their grandparents did or had and how that has changed over time. For example, toys, homes, shops, and schools.

Some quotes from the year 1 child were, “I’d like to do history more often“. “I love learning about new things that are actually really old”. “It would be better if we could have more than one lesson a week.”

In Year 2 they were comparing primary sources from the Great Fire of London. There were lots of great discussions about the findings from the sources.

They also linked their history learning with their D&T learning and made Tudor houses! Some quote from the year 2 children were; “I loved reading Samuel Pepys diary, because of his diary we know lots of details about two huge events in history – the great plague and Great Fire of London.” “I’ve learnt lots of new words and about historical events.”

In year 3, I saw some outstanding learning about The Stone Age in the history books. I also saw current learning on the Bronze and Iron age linking to previous learning from the Stone Age. The books were beautifully presented, and was clear to see the children are proud of their work

Some quotes from the year 3 children include, “I’ve learnt something new in every lesson.” “I loved learning about what you can do with rocks, it’s a lot!”

In year 5, there was a lovely display celebrating the children’s work on The Anglo-Saxons. They had created posters describing some of the gods the early Anglo-Saxon people believed in and worshipped. I was able to see the children using the chrome books to research the Vikings and put what they discovered onto a timeline.

Quotes from the Year 5 children about their history learning were; “How the Anglo Saxons made jewellery was very interesting. I created a necklace.” “I liked learning about new civilisations.” “I like everything we do in history.”

And finally, in year 6 the children could tell me in great detail all about the Maya civilisation and enjoyed showing off their knowledge through a quiz on the most advanced society in Meso-America at their period of time. Quotes from the year 6 children include, “I liked doing our own research on the chrome books and writing fact files on the Maya civilisation.” “I love finding out what was done and made in the past.”