The aim of history teaching here at Benwick Primary School is to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We teach children a sense of chronology, and through this they develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. Thus they learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today. In our school history makes a significant contribution to citizenship education by teaching about how Britain developed as a democratic society. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by so doing, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.
The aims of history in our school are:
- to foster in children an interest in the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer
- to enable children to know about significant events in British history and to appreciate how things have changed over time
- to develop a sense of chronology
- to know and understand how the British system of democratic government has developed and, in so doing, to contribute to a child’s citizenship education
- to understand how Britain is part of a wider European culture and to study some aspects of European history
- to have some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world
- to help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage
- to develop in children the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation