Intent:

History is about understanding the events that have occurred in the past, the links these have to now and how we can learn from the past to inform our future. Through enquiry-based learning, the history curriculum allows children to develop a coherent knowledge and understanding of where we live, Great Britain and that of the wider world. 

At Beechview, children are encouraged to be inquisitive about the past and how things came to be. We want them to ask questions and provide them with tools such as evaluating sources and inference to investigate successfully. By helping them to understand local history we hope to show children where their lives fit into this and build a stronger sense of community. Additionally, we also want our pupils to be able to compare and contrast the history of other nations with our own so they can see how actions of the past have shaped the world today.

We recognise that there are children attending Beechview Academy who have been directly impacted by the history of Britain and that of the local area, we want to address this and equip children to better understand their place within this. We also recognise that there may be students attending Beechview, who potentially lack opportunities to have cultural experiences and require access to cultural capital to ensure this does not hold them back in their learning. The history curriculum at our school aims to address these issues and give children the powerful cultural capital they need to understand the world in which they are growing up. Therefore we will give our children:

1. A coherent, chronological narrative of the history of Britain from the earliest times to the present day and an understanding of Buckinghamshire’s place within this.
2. Knowledge of the migration in different places and times but especially into and out of the British Isles.
3. Experience diverse cultures, representing some of the diverse origins of the pupils themselves so that children can see themselves in the curriculum

We have provided a knowledge and experience-based curriculum which exposes pupils to new activities, raises aspirations and fills these gaps. To further support this, history is meaningfully planned and linked to high-quality texts throughout the English curriculum and beyond, making it relevant to the topics chosen throughout the year.