History

At Christ Church, History helps children to understand the people, places, events and ideas that have shaped the world they live in today. Through a carefully sequenced curriculum, pupils build a secure knowledge of the past, beginning with their own lives and familiar experiences before moving into local, national and global history.

Our History curriculum is designed to help children see that the past is connected, layered and complex. Pupils revisit important ideas over time so that their understanding grows from Nursery to Year 6. They learn about significant individuals, communities, civilisations, achievements, conflicts, beliefs, inventions and movements of people. Through this, they develop a rich sense of chronology and begin to understand how change happens, why people acted as they did, and how the past continues to influence the present.

History at Christ Church also supports our school vision: “Together, we flourish.” Children are encouraged to be curious about the past, respectful of different lives and experiences, hopeful about the lessons history can teach us, and show perseverance when exploring complex questions. They learn that history is not just a list of dates and events, but a way of thinking carefully about people, evidence, choices and consequences.

Our Four Key History Schemas

To help pupils make meaningful connections across year groups and historical periods, our History curriculum is organised around four key schemas. These act as “threads” that run through the curriculum, helping children to build, revisit and deepen their knowledge over time.

	‘Chronology’ is the foundation of historical understanding. Pupils learn to place people, events and periods in order, using language such as past, present, before, after, ancient, modern, decade, century and millennium. As they move through school, children develop a stronger understanding of duration, overlap and sequence. They begin to recognise that different civilisations and historical events were happening at the same time in different parts of the world. Through this schema, pupils learn that history is not isolated.
	‘Movement’ helps pupils understand what life was like for different people in the past. Children explore homes, families, work, education, food, leisure, beliefs, traditions, roles and communities. They compare the lives of rich and poor, powerful and ordinary people, adults and children, and different groups within society. Through this schema, pupils learn that people’s experiences of the same period were not always the same. They consider questions such as: What was life like for children in the past? How did communities live, work and worship? How were societies organised? What can everyday objects, buildings, images and written sources tell us about people’s lives?
	‘Power’ helps pupils understand how power has been gained, used, challenged and changed over time. Children learn about rulers, monarchs, governments, empires, armies, laws, crime, punishment, invasion, resistance and war. They explore how decisions made by leaders and groups have affected people’s lives. They learn to understand that power can shape societies, create change, cause conflict and leave lasting legacies.
	‘Legacy’ helps pupils understand how and why things change, what stays the same, and what impact the past has on the world today. Children learn to identify turning points, causes and consequences, progress, decline and legacy. They consider how inventions, discoveries, beliefs, movements, laws, conflicts and achievements have influenced later generations. Children learn that some changes happen quickly, while others develop over long periods of time. They explore how transport, technology, emergency services, industry, migration, democracy, empire, punishment, warfare and everyday life have changed across history. They also consider what has remained similar and why some ideas, places and events are still remembered today.

Working Like Historians

Alongside these four schemas, pupils develop the skills needed to think and work like historians. They ask questions, examine evidence, compare sources, identify similarities and differences, and consider different interpretations of the past. They learn that historical knowledge is built from evidence and that historians sometimes disagree because they use, question and interpret evidence in different ways.

As children progress through Christ Church, they become increasingly confident in using historical vocabulary, explaining their thinking and making connections across the curriculum. By the end of Year 6, our aim is for pupils to leave Christ Church with a strong chronological framework, a broad knowledge of significant periods and people, and the curiosity to keep asking thoughtful questions about the past and its relevance to the present.