History
History at St Nick’s:
At St Nick’s, our history curriculum aims to ignite children’s curiosity about the past and help them understand how history has shaped the world they live in today. We follow the National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum, ensuring pupils develop secure knowledge of significant events, people and civilisations across local, national and global contexts.
We use trust‑wide planning, created collaboratively by subject leaders across our schools. This ensures a well structured, inclusive curriculum with the needs of our learners at its heart. Our approach provides clear progression, rich learning experiences and a consistent standard of high quality teaching.
As a result, history at St Nick’s is engaging, inclusive and tailored to our pupils, enabling them to develop strong knowledge, critical thinking skills and a lifelong interest in the past.
At St Nick’s, our history curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
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Develop a deep curiosity about the past, exploring how people lived, what they believed and how their actions shaped the world
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Build secure chronological understanding, knowing when and where key events, civilisations and periods took place
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Gain strong substantive knowledge of significant individuals, events and societies from local, British and world history
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Develop disciplinary skills, learning how historians investigate the past through questioning, analysing evidence, evaluating sources and considering different interpretations
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Understand key historical concepts, such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity and difference, and historical significance
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Access an inclusive curriculum, where learning is adapted to meet individual needs and SEND support ensures every child can participate and succeed
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Experience appropriate challenge, with tasks designed to stretch thinking and deepen understanding for all learners
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Use historical vocabulary confidently, applying it accurately when discussing, explaining or writing about the past
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Recognise diversity in history, understanding the experiences and contributions of different groups and communities across time
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Make meaningful connections, linking past events to modern life and understanding how history influences the present
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Develop the knowledge and skills needed for future learning, fostering a lifelong interest in exploring and understanding the past
History in the classroom:
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History is taught through a carefully sequenced curriculum, ensuring pupils build knowledge and understanding over time.
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We use a range of teaching and learning methods, including storytelling, artefact exploration, enquiry questions, drama and discussion.
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Cross‑curricular links are made wherever meaningful, particularly with English, geography and art.
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Learning is differentiated to meet individual needs, with SEND support and appropriate challenge for all learners.
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Topics follow a two‑year cycle, allowing full curriculum coverage while revisiting key knowledge and skills regularly.
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Mixed‑ability groupings promote inclusion, collaboration and peer support.
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Each classroom has a history working wall, displaying key vocabulary, timelines and essential knowledge for the current topic.
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Children learn to think like historians by developing disciplinary skills such as questioning, interpreting evidence and understanding different viewpoints.
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Substantive knowledge — the facts, events and concepts of history — is revisited frequently to strengthen long‑term understanding.
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Ongoing assessments are recorded on our tracker system and any gaps in learning are addressed immediately through the ‘connect’ activity in the following lessons.
