History
What We Want to Achieve
At Sunnyfields, we are passionate about history. Committed to inspiring children to become fascinated, we aim to give children access to primary and secondary sources so that they can find out about the past, learn about the key features of various historical periods, such as the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, the Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Tudors at the same time as developing important historical skills.
Children study a number of different periods from the past. We aim to give children a range of opportunities to gain historical knowledge and therefore children learn about famous people from the past, for example Neil Armstrong and Florence Nightingale. We also enable children to find out about particular events in history, the Great Fire of London for example.
We are also keen to ensure that children develop historical skills. Teachers organise various activities so that children can compare the past with the present, or contrast different periods. For example, pupils may be asked to consider the similarities and differences of an Anglo Saxon dwelling and a Viking home. We also wish to enable children to develop a chronological awareness and understand the order that different periods of history happened in. We intend that children become able to recognise the key features of a period. Whilst children learn to identify the reasons for, and consequences of, a historical event, we aim to ensure they come to appreciate the fact that different interpretations can be made about the past.
How We Want to Achieve It
Teachers make learning interesting and fun. For example, they may provide opportunities for pupils to work as real historians by handling artefacts from the past to encourage children to ask questions, carry out research and share their findings with classmates. At Sunnyfields, we have an Ecology Garden where we organise archaeological digs to engage children's interest. We arrange special events such 'History Days' where children and staff dress up as famous people from different periods in history. Such events ensure that learning is brought to life and children enjoy opportunities to 'hot seat' historical figures or to consider how to arrange famous people in chronological order.
We also undertake educational visits and workshops as we believe that trips to Roman theatres or Tudor palaces, for example, engage the children and give them opportunities to actively participate in historical enquiry. Hopefully the photograph illustrates not only why so many pupils enjoy the subject at Sunnyfields but why history plays such an important role in both their education and personal development.
Click here to see the History Curriculum Map
The curriculum is organised in chronological order so that the younger children learn about ancient civilizations and older children study more recent periods. Please click the link above to see how the curriculum is arranged.