Aims & Purpose

Each subject leader regularly reviews the purpose and aims for their subjects.  These are based upon the National Curriculum statements, developed by a range of educational and subject-specific experts.  These statements lay out the aims of each subject at Dorney School.

History

A rich, broad, balanced and meaningful history education aims  to ignite our pupils curiosity about the past in Britain and the world, and where they will develop a well-rounded knowledge of events, with the intention to improve our pupils' cultural capital. Topics are informed by the national curriculum and are sensitive to our children's interests.  The History curriculum at Dorney draws from and makes use of the immediate and wider local area, enabling our pupils to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality. Teaching should equip our pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, interpret evidence - including primary and secondary sources, have the skills to argue their point of view, and develop perspective and judgement, which includes considering the cause and consequences of past events. History helps our pupils 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.

 The curriculum for history aims to ensure that all our 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.

Curriculum Overviews

Our curriculum has been mapped to ensure that there is clear progression across the school. Subject leaders regularly review the topics taught in each year group to ensure that pupils are taught the right content at the right time.