At Carden Nursery and Primary School we believe in providing high quality, active, purposeful and experiential learning opportunities. Our aim is to engage and equip pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding they require to be successful learners. Through exploratory learning of historical events, pupils are able to timeline the narrative of history and make links to the present. During in-depth study of historical events, pupils gain an understanding of the wider world and the consequences of choices past.
Our Core Values and Learning Journey Skills underpin our language rich curriculum, which is mapped to include coverage of the national curriculum as well as numerous enrichment activities and outdoor learning opportunities. Utilising high quality resources and promoting both teacher and pupil talk, it ensures children can comfortably use a wide variety of historical terms to support their learning and understanding. Making use of local sites of interest, re-enactment and dress up days allows our pupils to see history through their own eyes and contextualise and solve problems as someone else in time. Our curriculum challenges all pupils; engages their imagination by being immersed in real-life experiences; encourages their curiosity and motivates them to take the next steps in their learning.
We believe that the curriculum is everything that happens throughout the day, both in and out of school; we value and celebrate experiences and achievements from home. By celebrating the commemorative and familial events relevant to our pupils and our wider community, we aim to help children understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as seeing, understanding and celebrating their own identity.
Our ultimate goal is for all learners to be successful, confident, happy individuals, who make positive contributions within their community, respect diversity and value equality of opportunity both now and in the future.
At Carden, we have linked historic events, knowledge, skills and vocabulary through our Big 6 themes of democracy, invasion, invention, trade, exploration and empire. Pupils study each period of history through the lense of these themes which are woven through and underpin the curriculum. Detailed knowledge organisers and progression of skills documents support the learning at each stage.
Our history teaching and learning is fully diversified and significant work has been achieved in decolonising key aspects of the curriculum. We challenge Eurocentric perspectives by including diverse knowledge systems, histories, and voices, recognising how colonialism shaped what we learn. We have broadened the subject to reflect global contributions, acknowledging power imbalances, and creating more inclusive, representative learning environments for all students, rather than erasing existing knowledge.
Key aims of our history curriculum
- Creating an immersive experience of history, which inspires pupils to use their creative and analytical mind to explore history. This included examining a variety of primary and secondary source of evidence and information.
- Interconnecting the study of history with the study of the other humanities of geography and religious study. Making use of the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the contributions of diverse societies and people to arts, sciences, and politics.
- Using experimental archaeology, informed role-play and simulation to explore historical situations and to formulate pupils’ own hypotheses, questions and opinions.
- Exploring the history of our locality, the United Kingdom, and a diverse variety of places and societies.
- Investigating case studies of significant events in history examining the points of view of people involved and the cause and impact of such events.
Pupils will leave Carden with an increased critical and analytical thinking, making informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past; beginning to apply these to the issues they face in the present. They will have the knowledge and skills to challenge and question traditional narratives. Pupils will have developed their awareness and understanding of how historical events, including local history, have contributed and influenced societies around the globe to shape the modern world. Pupils will have a love of history and a desire to continue to explore in the next stage of their learning.
