At Christ the King Primary School, history is an exciting and important part of our curriculum. We follow the Kapow Primary History scheme, which helps us deliver a broad and balanced history education for all children.
Through engaging lessons, pupils learn to:
Develop a secure understanding of local, British and world history.
Place events and people in chronological context and build a sense of the passing of time.
Ask thoughtful questions, think critically, and evaluate evidence.
Understand how people’s lives have shaped Britain and how Britain has influenced the wider world.
Make connections between the past and present, recognising change and continuity over time.
Our history curriculum is taught through a two-year rolling programme (Cycle A and Cycle B) to ensure full coverage of the National Curriculum while meeting the needs of mixed-age classes. From exploring their own personal history in Key Stage 1 to investigating the impact of the Vikings, Tudors, and World War II in Key Stage 2, pupils gradually build their knowledge and historical skills as they progress through school.
History begins in our Early Years Foundation Stage, where children explore the concept of the past through the theme of “Understanding the World.” Pupils learn to:
Talk about their own life and important events in it.
Explore how they have changed since they were babies.
Compare similarities and differences between life today and in the past.
Look at old and new objects, toys and photographs, and talk about how things have changed over time.
These early experiences help children to develop a sense of time and lay the foundations for historical enquiry.
History lessons are practical, creative, and enquiry-led. Children use a wide range of sources such as artefacts, photographs, written accounts, and oral histories. Lessons often include debates, drama, and role-play to help bring the past to life.
We want all children to leave our school with a love of history, a curiosity about the past, and the skills to think like young historians.
GEOGRAPHY
At Christ the King we believe that studying geography stimulates an interest in the world around us. Through studying geography, we want our children to learn to question, to investigate and to think critically about the issues affecting our planet and people’s lives currently and in the future. Geography tells us where places are, explains how places and landscapes developed, how people interact with their environment and how we are all connected by our economies, societies and environments.
Children investigate places at all levels – from exploring the natural world around them in EYFS to the personal through local area explorations in KS1- to the global, through studying population, migration, and energy and sustainability in KS2. We also look at physical phenomena, such as mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, biomes, rivers and weather. Our children learn both in the classroom and outside, by undertaking field work and by using maps (including digital ones) to gather information.
We aim to make our children ‘global citizens’ who understand their responsibilities to other people, the world around them and the sustainability of Planet Earth.