St Augustine’s Primary aims to inspire pupils to be curious and creative thinkers who develop a complex knowledge of local and national history and the history of the wider world. We want pupils to develop the confidence to think critically, ask questions, and be able to explain and analyse historical evidence. We will develop pupils’ understanding of how historians study the past and construct accounts and the skills to carry out their own historical enquiries. In order to prepare pupils for their future learning in History, the curriculum aims to introduce them to key substantive concepts including power, invasion, settlement and migration, empire, civilisation, religion, trade, achievements of humankind, society and culture.

We have adopted the Kapow Primary scheme for the majority of our History curriculum and incorporated our own individual units of learning that are bespoke to our pupils and the community around us. Our History curriculum emphasises the importance of historical knowledge being shaped by disciplinary approaches, including topic knowledge, chronological awareness, substantive concepts, historical enquiry and disciplinary concepts. St Augustine’s History curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. For example, children will progress by developing their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of historical contexts and periods.

Pupils will leave St Augustine’s primary school equipped with a range of historical skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be enquiring learners who ask questions and can make suggestions about where to find the evidence to answer the question. This will allow them to be critical and analytical thinkers who are able to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. They will have aquired the skills of historical enquiry needed to interpret a range of sources and use them to make historical claims, make connections, analyse trends and discuss how and why contrasting views of the past have been constructed.