At Alkerden, we believe that history offers learners the opportunity to explore the past, to understand how people, places and events have shaped the world they live in now. Our History curriculum aims to: 

• Spark curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and the history of the wider world. 

• Develop learners’ understanding of chronological history: changes within living memory and beyond; how societies evolve, and how events and decisions from the past influence the present. 

• Introduce learners to significant events, eras, civilisations and people (from local, national and global history), appreciating the diversity, achievements and challenges of human societies. 

• Equip learners with historical enquiry skills: the ability to examine evidence, interpret sources, ask critical questions, understand different perspectives, and think about cause and consequence, continuity and change, similarity and difference, and significance. 

• Encourage learners to appreciate the complexity of human experience, morally, socially and culturally, helping them form empathy, understanding and informed views about people, communities and societies throughout time. 

• Provide learners with a broad, knowledgeable curriculum that builds over time so they remember key concepts, connect themes across history and see patterns and change over generations. 

Through History at Alkerden we aim to nurture thoughtful, informed and curious learners who appreciate their heritage, understand the world, and recognise their place in time. 

• History is taught across all year groups from Early Years through to Year 6. The curriculum is carefully structured so that knowledge and skills build progressively from simple awareness to deeper historical understanding. 

• Differentiation and support are embedded: lessons are designed so that all learners, whatever their starting point, can engage meaningfully. Those who need scaffolding or extra support receive it; more confident or advanced learners are given deeper, more challenging enquiry tasks or extended projects. 

• History is made engaging and relevant: through discussion, drama, projects, local history studies, fieldwork, class debates and crosscurricular links (with geography, literature, art and science). This helps learners connect past and present, understand local and global contexts, and appreciate cultural heritage and diversity. 

• Chronology is emphasised: learners build a sense of timeline and time depth. They begin to understand decades, centuries, eras and how different historical periods relate to each other. This helps them place events and changes in context and see patterns over time. 

• Learners are taught to use and interpret a range of historical sources and evidence, stories, artefacts, documents, images, accounts, developing enquiry skills: asking questions, evaluating sources, making inferences, comparing viewpoints, and building their own historical interpretations. 

By the time learners leave Alkerden our History curriculum ensures they: 

• Have a coherent and secure knowledge of key events, people, civilisations, and historical periods, both in Britain and the wider world, and understand how societies have changed and developed over time. 

• Are confident in using historical vocabulary and concepts, such as chronology, cause and consequence, continuity and change, significance, similarity and difference, to describe and analyse the past. 

• Think like historians: able to examine sources, ask critical questions, interpret evidence, weigh perspectives, draw conclusions and present reasoned arguments about the past. 

• Appreciate diversity: aware of different cultures, societies and times; recognising how identities, beliefs and ways of life have varied and evolved; showing respect for heritage and cultural differences. 

• Understand how the past influences the present and helps shape the future, gaining insight into their own community, national identity and global citizenship. 

• Develop a sense of curiosity, empathy, moral awareness and social responsibility: able to reflect on human experience, learn lessons from history, and contribute thoughtfully to society. 

• Are prepared for future learning: ready for secondary education and beyond, with strong historical knowledge, enquiry skills and a grounded sense of context and continuity. 

The impact of our History curriculum will be clear in learners who ask thoughtful questions about their world, engage confidently in debate and discussion about history and its relevance, draw connections between past and present, and carry a lifelong interest in learning about people, places and change through time. 

• BBC Bitesize
• National History Museum
• The British Museum

• History for Kids
• Historical Association
• History Facts