Sudbury Primary School

At Sudbury Primary School, we teach history and geography during our Humanities lessons.

We use both history and geography to give children the opportunity to learn more about our local area, as well as other topics such as the Ancient Egyptians and famous explorers. We make use of cross-curricular links when possible.

Through the teaching of history, children gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim to inspire curiosity, equip pupils with the skills to ask insightful questions and develop a judgement based on the sources and arguments available to them. History helps children to understand the differences in people’s lives, the process and impact of change and the challenges of their times. 

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world 
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind 
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ 
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses 
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed 
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Through the teaching of geography, children are interested and curious about the world around them. We equip children with knowledge about diverse places, resources, and both natural and human environments. We develop a deeper understanding of the Earth’s physical and human processes and the formation of different environments. The children’s geographical knowledge allows them to examine the connections between the Earth’s features and how these too change over time.

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

• develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes 
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time 
• are competent in the geographical skills needed to: 
• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes 
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) 
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Humanities KS1