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History & Geography

History

During our history lessons, the children will develop an excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.

This knowledge has been carefully specified within the sequence of the unit, year group and key stage to ensure it builds upon previous knowledge and prepares the children for future learning.

Teachers will assess the pupils throughout the learning sequence to ensure that the children can retrieve and apply their knowledge effectively. This will be achieved through low stakes quizzing, retrieval practice and end of unit assessment pieces.

As the children progress through their history programme of study, teachers will focus on the retrieval of previously taught knowledge and skills so that children build a rich schema of knowledge which they can apply to future learning.

The children will also be taught the skills required to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently in styles appropriate for their age and for a range of audiences. From this, the children will be given the ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry.

Geography

During our Geography lessons, we implement a progressive geography curriculum that builds effectively on prior knowledge and skills year on year. To grow World Citizens, our progressive curriculum focusses on a variety of places: from UK; to Europe; North, South and Central America; and Africa. Their understanding of how their local area fits into the wider world is therefore gradually accrued.  The lessons and knowledge have been carefully specified within the sequence of the unit, year group and key stage to ensure that it builds upon previous knowledge and prepares children for future learning.

Teachers will assess the pupils throughout the learning sequence to ensure that the children can retrieve and apply their knowledge effectively. This will be achieved through low stakes quizzing, retrieval practise and end of unit assessment pieces. As the children progress through their geography programme of study, teachers will focus on the retrieval of previously taught knowledge and skills so that the children build a rich schema of knowledge which they can apply to future learning.

The children will revisit geographical skills and knowledge in order to embed and deepen understanding. They will develop an excellent understanding of ‘Spatial Sense’, being able to use geographical tools such as maps, atlases, globes and technology to understand the world more. The children will be taught skills which require them to think critically and enable them to become resilient learners.

Children will be given the opportunity to research local issues and previous geographical events. They will be able to debate and evaluate decisions and become healthy advocates.

1

Year 1

  • World History and Geography, including: Oceans and Continents; Maps and the Globe; Around the World in Seven Ways: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica
  • British History and Geography, including: Your Country; The Ice Age; The Stone Age and Stonehenge; The Bronze Age; The Iron Age; Kings and Queens; Queen Elizabeth II; Prime Ministers: Sir Robert Walpole, Winston Churchill and others
2

Year 2

  • World History and Geography, including: Fantastic Pharaohs, A Journey Down the Nile, A Great Mesopotamian Story, What Different People Believe
  • British and European Geography, including: The Countries of the British Isles, Scandinavian Geography, Great Explorers: Roald Amundsen
  • British History, including: Romans in Britain, Roman Influences on Britain, Post-Roman Britain, Archaeology, The Vikings; Tall Tales, Alfred Burns the Cakes, Normans in Britain, The Domesday Book, May Day Celebrations
3

Year 3

  • World History and Geography, including: Great Rivers of the World; Civilisations in Asia; Ancient Greece: Birthplace of the Olympics; Athens: Birthplace of Democracy
  • British and European Geography, including: Geography of Western Europe; British Rivers and Basins
  • British History, including: Norman Monarchs; The Crusades; The Magna Carta; de Montfort’s Parliament; Wars of the Roses; The Reformation; The Elizabethan Era
4

Year 4

  • World Geography, including: Maps; Mediterranean Europe; Eastern Europe
  • British Geography, including: London and the South East; The South West; Northern Ireland
  • World History – Ancient Rome, including: The Legend of How Rome Began; Hannibal Keeps His Promise; Julius Caesar Shows Who’s Boss; Crossing the Rubicon; Constantine Sees a Cross in the Sky; What is a Century?
  • British History, including: Union of the Crowns; Civil War; Restoration; Great Plague and the Great Fire; Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights; A Great Explorer: Sir Francis Drake
5

Year 5

  • World Geography, including: Maps; Map Reading; Mountains around the World; Australia
  • British Geography, including: the East of England; The Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber
  • British History, including: Why Great Britain was created; John Churchill: The First Duke of Marlborough; How Parliamentary Government developed; The British Empire; Life in Georgian Britain
6

Year 6

  • World Geography, including: Map projections and time zones; American Geography.
  • British Geography, including: Wales; Scotland; North West England and North East England.
  • History, learn about British history from the Industrial Revolution to the death of Queen Victoria and about the American Civil War that abolished slavery in the USA.

Please find useful links below

History and Geography Studies Overview
History and Geography Studies Overview

Should you have any questions about the curriculum, please contact Mr Joseph via info@thelight-school.org

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Suite 1, Queensgate Centre, Orsett Road, Grays. RM17 5DF
Phone: 01375 271017

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