Our ultimate aim is to foster a lifelong fascination and desire to find out more about the past, and a sense of wonder at the “otherness” of the past, balanced with an understanding that events in the past have shaped our lives today.

We aim to enable the children to be active participants in history by exposing them to areas of the past that will particularly capture their imagination, either because of a local link, or because of their significance to the history of our nation or the world. Studying the lives of people in the past helps develop empathy and insight.

We want children to view history as a living field – to feel empowered to act as historians by asking questions and examining sources – rather than as a subject where someone else has all the answers. We encourage children to extend their knowledge by undertaking their own research, and by beginning to develop their own explanations and theories. We also want them to develop confidence in making links between periods, or between cultures, whilst developing a clear understanding of chronology through learning key dates in British history. We can strengthen this by embedding history across the curriculum – for instance giving a historical dimension to scientific discussions about invention or innovation, or ensuring that a sense of the historical period underpins our approach to literature or British values.