At Porthleven School we aim to offer a high-quality History education that will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. It also helps children gain a sense of their own identity within a social, political, cultural and economic background. Because of this, we feel it is important for the subject to be taught discretely as well as incorporated within other curriculum subjects.
Our History lessons are informed and aligned with the National Curriculum. The history curriculum is designed for children to develop and progress through core disciplinary concepts to ensure that when they leave our school they will think like historians:
- Change, continuity & development
- Cause and consequence
- Significance and diversity
- Chronological understanding
- Interpretations
Knowledge of abstract concepts (substantive knowledge), such as 'Monarchy' and 'Empire' are built on through the history curriculum through a variety of contexts at local, national and global level.
We intend for our children to have real life experiences and learn about History in an active and creative way and therefore visitors and trips form a part of our curriculum. Use of artefacts from local museums also support contextualised learning in the classroom.
