HISTORY
‘By following in the footsteps of Jesus,
we are making the heart, mind and spirit soar’
Our actions and words of today are the footprints of our future.
January
Prime VR Experience
Year 4 and Year 5 had an interactive virtual reality experience to kick start their new topics. There were screams, there was laughter and more importantly, there was a lot of learning. This was a fantastic way of introducing our classes to their new topics and fully engage them with their future learning.
All of this was only manageable through the amazing work of https://primevr.co.uk/ We thank Raminder and the whole company for giving us this amazing opportunity.
November
Remembrance
“In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row," John McCrae
Thank you to Year 6 who led our Remembrance Assembly this year and to all the Parents who could join us.
October
Celebrating Black history Month
“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” – Rosa Parks
This year we held a competition to create a piece of work inspired by Black History Month. We had lots of beautiful art, fact files, posters, collages, presentations and models. Some of these are on display in the dining room, there were so many entries they would not all fit!
It was incredibly difficult to choose a winner but well done to Bianca in Year 1, Aoife in Year 2, Evangeline in Year 3, Romaan in Year 4, Antonio in Year 5 and Shuja in Year 6.
Thank you to everyone who entered this years competition.
September
New years and new beginnings
“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” David McCullough
Here at St Thomas Aquinas we are excited to begin a new year. This year the history team are going to focus on our curriculum to make it the best it can be and on our local history to help us to discover more about the past of our school and our community. Despite the disruptions of the last few years we are hopeful there will be trips, adventures and competition in store.
Intent
At St Thomas Aquinas, we provide a high-quality history education, which helps our children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It inspires our children's curiosity to know more about the past. Moreover, it prepares them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps our children to understand 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.
Implementation
Please click here to see St Thomas Aquinas History Topic overview Plan
z Please click here to see St Thomas Aquinas History Skills Progression Ladder
Aims
Foundation Stage:
At St Thomas Aquinas we follow the EYFS Framework 'Understanding the world' to ensure that all pupils are taught;
3 & 4 year olds:
- Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family's history.
Reception:
- Comment on images of familiar situations in the past.
- Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past. ELG:
- Talk about the lives of people around them and their roles in society.
- Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
- Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling
At St Thomas Aquinas we follow The National Curriculum for History and we aim to ensure that all pupils:
- Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: 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: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
- Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
- Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference 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.
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Key Stage 1:
In Key Stage 1 children will develop an awareness of the past. They will learn about significant individuals who have contributed to national and international achievements. They will also study changes within living memory as well as events beyond living memory that are nationally or globally significant. They will learn where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
Key Stage 2:
In Key Stage 2 the children will continue to appreciate history in a chronological context. They will develop a secure understanding of British, local and world history. The children will consider connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They will also learn to understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of different sources and spend time looking at, and dealing with, different sources.
Throughout the school, History is taught through a cross-curricular approach where applicable and appropriate, so that children are immersed and gain a deeper insight into the topic they are studying. We enhance the children’s learning of History through providing opportunities for Educational visits and visitors in school. This encourages the children to gain exciting experiences to see how the period they are studying fits into the wider world.
Impact
At St Thomas Aquinas we want the History learning experiences provided to our pupils to encourage them to think;
'History at St Thomas inspires our curiosity to know more about the past'
'History lessons are engaging, interesting and exciting'
'We have a wide variety of Historical experiences'
'We love learning about History'
'History is an important part of us, that we want to learn and understand'
'Historical Educational visits and experiences inspire my career aspirations'
