History 

 at  

Nightingale Infant & Nursery School  

Intent 

At Nightingale Infant & Nursery School we believe that that the teaching of history is vital as it will 

 • enable pupils to understand how and why people behave as they do now 

 • enable them to understand themselves  

• give them the confidence and ability to try to improve themselves and their world 

• help them to develop a sense of responsibility for the world in which later generations will live 

• enable them to ask and answer significant questions  

• enable them to think for themselves and to reach fair and rational conclusions about complex human situations 

• inspire in them a lasting interest in, and enjoyment of, learning about the past 

Implementation 

At Nightingale Infant & Nursery School we focus on historical skills and concepts as well as the acquisition of knowledge and facts. We teach history through a cross-curricular approach, linking to other subjects such as literacy and Citizenship and British values. We develop historical topics through links to high-quality texts suggested by the Power of Reading literacy scheme. Historical topics are based around key questions where enquiry and evidence based approaches are central. We use a variety of sources including artefacts, stories, historical accounts, photographs and videos. 

Impact 

At Nightingale Infant and Nursery School we ensure that there is progression across the year groups in terms of skills, vocabulary and knowledge. The impact of the curriculum will be reviewed (during the year and at the end of the year), through observations and assessments of pupils’ learning to identify how much knowledge they have gained and remembered over time. By the end of their time at Nightingale Infant & Nursery School children will have begun to develop a sense of time and of historical terms and concepts which will equip them for the more detailed study of specific periods of British and world history that they will study at Junior school. 

• Develop a sense of time, helping children to grasp how time is measured and to see that some things change quickly others slowly 
• Help children to work out how and why events happen. 
• Help children to consider what it was like at different times in the past. 

• Help children to understand that there are some things about the past we can know for sure and others we can never know.  History has to be constructed from the pieces of the jigsaw that are left behind, without the picture on the lid to help us. 
• Help children use evidence to reach balanced points of view realising the need to check and to cross reference and not to believe the first source they read. 

Recommended Websites

• KS1 History
  Great Fire of London

• KS1 History
  Great Fire of London

• KS1 History
  Apollo 11 Moon landing

• KS1 History
  First men on the moon