History-  How the past has impacted on our life

At Monkhouse, we aim to ignite a passion for learning and exploring History as it teaches children to understand the present as well as the past, and to appreciate how events in the past have influenced our lives today.

In Key Stage 1, children develop an awareness of the past using common historical terms. They begin to understand how people and events fit within a chronological framework and explore similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. Pupils learn about significant individuals and events in the history of the UK and the wider world.

In Key Stage 2, pupils extend their chronological understanding and study British, local, and world history in a coherent narrative. They make connections and note contrasts and trends over time, use historical vocabulary accurately, and develop their understanding of key historical concepts such as cause and consequence, change and continuity, and significance.

In History, our curriculum is driven by enquiries, these focused, specific, historically enquiry based questions allow children to learn and interpret the past to gain a better understanding of how events in the past have influenced our lives today. Through our History curriculum we aim to inspire children to investigate these past events and develop key disciplinary historical skills, this is knowledge of how historians study the past and construct accounts, to be able to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.  We hope to inspire children to understand the world in the past in order to define their own experiences and future.

Our history curriculum is designed to allow the children to learn about ‘How has the past affected our life?’  Key historical concepts of legacy, settlement, agriculture and government are underlying features of lessons and are planned for in order to allow curriculum links to be made and to promote critical thinking about the past and present and the impact on our lives. This helps children to develop an awareness of their position in the world and actively link their knowledge across the curriculum. 

At Monkhouse, we provide a broad, balanced, and progressive History curriculum from Nursery through to Year 6. History is taught as a standalone subject, however where appropriate we also teach and learn through rich and meaningful connections across the curriculum.

Early Years

In the Early Years, we begin to build children’s understanding of history by helping them develop a sense of time and the past. Our approach focuses on four key themes:

• Understanding the Past and Present

• People are Born, Grow up and Grow Old

• We Make and Keep Memories

• We Remember Special Times

Children explore the concept of time through daily routines, storytelling, and play. They learn how people grow and change through stories and experiences, looking at photos and objects from the past, and talking to family members about their childhood. Role play and small world activities help them understand different life stages.

We support children in recalling their own experiences and understanding how memories are kept through photos, videos, and special objects. They also begin to discover how communities celebrate important events, like Remembrance Day and festivals from different cultures, through stories, art, music, and food.

This meaningful, hands-on approach helps children develop the vocabulary, knowledge, and curiosity that will support future history learning.

Key Stage 1 and 2

From Year 1 to Year 6, children follow a carefully structured whole-school scheme of work. This scheme is fully progressive and enables pupils to build on prior learning as they move through school.

The scheme outlines the substantive knowledge (factual content such as events, people, and places) and disciplinary knowledge (how historians investigate the past, such as using evidence and understanding cause and consequence) to be taught in each unit.

Our Approach to Teaching History

• Chronology is at the heart of our curriculum. A standardised timeline is used across school to support children’s chronological understanding and to help them see how periods of history fit together.

• Every history lesson begins with a chance to recall and retrieve previously taught knowledge and skills, supporting long-term retention and deeper understanding.

• Teachers make clear links between prior learning and new learning, helping children to connect ideas and build a coherent view of the past.

• Children learn to identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods, and place people and events in a chronological framework.

• The curriculum is built around key historical concepts such as settlement and agriculture, government, and legacy, which are revisited across Key Stages 1 and 2 to deepen understanding over time.

Enhancing learning 

At Monkhouse, we bring history to life through a range of exciting experiences beyond the classroom. Children take part in educational visits to museums and historical sites such as Beamish, Vindolanda Roman Fort, and the George Stephenson Railway Museum. We also welcome visitors into school to share their expertise and deliver engaging workshops.

Through the Tyne & Wear Museums’ artefact loan scheme, pupils have the chance to handle real historical objects and explore stories from the past. They also use books, photographs, and other sources to support their learning.

We mark important historical events such as Remembrance Day and Holocaust Memorial Day through school-wide activities and collaborations with other schools. Children also work together on history projects throughout the year, helping them build a deeper understanding of the past in meaningful and memorable ways.

Classroom immersion 

At Monkhouse, we immerse the classrooms into unique learning spaces that bring a multi sensory environment into the classroom, bringing history to life, for example; from George Stephenson and the invention of the railway to the coal mines of the North East. 

Aspiration and Inspiration

At Monkhouse our school vision for history is that children learn the legacy from the period of study and learn how the past impacts the future. We want to embed a pedagogy of engagement, enquiry, curiosity and investigation to enable pupils to work as young historians as they progress through subject outcomes.