The topics covered are taken from the national curriculum run in chronological order, starting with the most recent (Victorians) in year 1, to the oldest (Stone and Iron Age Britain) in year 6. Each topic also has a chronological element of understanding what came before, after, as well as within it. Children learn to use dates and a wide range of historical terms when gaining insight and awareness that the past can be divided into different periods of time. Throughout their lessons, children gain confidence analysing and describing links and contrasts within and across different periods of time including short-term and long-term time scales creatively through time lines, image and event sequencing and role play.

Continuity and Change is a continuous thread within all the topics covered, for example, within learning about the Gunpowder plot in year 2 children gain an insight of how the United Kingdom still has a monarchy, but it no longer has absolute power as it once did. The city of Leeds has changed phenomenally throughout the years https://www.aleedsrevolution.co.uk/ and this is explored in each year group. In year 1, when the students focus on Roundhay Park, they explore this through the use of photographs identifying what is the same and what has changed. These key green spaces are constantly being adapted to fit with an ever growing population that the pupils experience www.LeedsObservatory.co.uk. In year 5, children explore and gain an insight of how Greek and Roman history affected, and still affects, Britain today. Children are able to recognise that their own lives are similar and/or different from the lives of people in the past.

Within each topic there will be an opportunity for the children to focus on historical enquiry. In year 4 the children become historians excavating a Viking burial mound, asking why/what/who/how/where questions, giving hypotheses. In year 2, the children ‘hot-seat’ the famous pilot Amelia Earhart and discuss her life, achievements and successes. In year 6, the children are given clues about a character from the Stone Age and must experience the role of an archaeologist, reaching and drawing conclusions. Children will be presented with multiple sources that provoke historical research and encouraged to ‘dig deeper’ furthering their understanding. They will recognise how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources left behind, through observing and handing a range of pieces in first hand experience with an analytical and critical understanding of how these can be interpreted

A key idea running throughout all topics is how rules are created and followed, beginning with recognising that Britain has a queen and has had kings and queens through history. They will be introduced to key terms such as ‘aristocracy ‘in year 1 and later, ‘caliph’ in year 4 when studying Early Islamic Civilisation, a topic specifically chosen to reflect the school cohort.  Year 1 learns about how the ownership of Roundhay Park has been transferred from one rich wealthy family to under public ownership, a similar transfer is then learned about in year 2 (Lotherton Hall). In year 5, children learn about the emergence of democracy when exploring Ancient Greece.

In year 3, children explore the local history of Kirkstall Abbey, one of the school houses, and subsequently the dissolution of the monasteries after Henry VIII. In year 2, children explore the role of Christopher Columbus’s many adventures, develop an understanding of how countries on the globe were discovered and the growth of European languages around the world. With a higher than average EAL cohort (over 37 different languages are spoken in our school), children gain an insight into how languages and vocabulary spread across continents Leeds language breakdown. The reason for straight roads that link places of high population and this knowledge is developed in year 5 when they study the Romans and also look at why they had such a conquering army. ‘Medicine through the ages’ , studied in year 6, also explores the advances that have taken place to keep us alive for longer, and how we would not have the resources that we do today that we now rely on for increased life expectancy. Overall, children gain an understanding of why certain events happened and what happened as a result.

Within this ongoing thread, children will be encouraged to be creative in choosing the most appropriate way of communicating their historical findings, selecting different methods to present information including diagrams, pictures, drama as well as more traditional forms such as comprehension work. In year 2, children experience the classroom transforming into a Victorian coal mine, where they had to move underneath tables, reflecting their growing knowledge that the school was built on an area rich in coal mining history, Leeds Map 1869. Year 6 gain the opportunity to experience the cramped and claustrophobic conditions of a slave ship from the time, when their classroom is transformed. These skills are often also reinforced within English lessons where children use their historical knowledge to complete literacy tasks such as retelling a simple historical narrative, report writing, fact files or biographies.