Join us on one of our Open Day Tours.
To book a space on a tour, please contact us on 0333 360 2110 or email us on office@gordonchildrensacademy.org.uk.

 

Please be aware we are a nut free school. For more information please visit our Lunchtime Page.
 

History

At Gordon Children’s Academy we aim to deliver a history curriculum that will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. Our teaching of history will help pupils gain a secure knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers use the long-term plans and identified themes and concepts in each topic to make comparisons between historical periods previously taught, developing children’s chronological knowledge and understanding from the Stone Age to present day. 

We want children to be curious to know more about the past and to have the skills required to explore their own interests. History lessons focus on working as historians and developing historical skills and there are many opportunities for the curriculum to be enriched through historical visits, visitors and events held in school. 

We aim to enable children to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. It is important for children to develop a sense of identity through learning about the past and we want them to know how history has shaped their own lives. This will enable pupils to be their best selves. This is why the local area is fully utilised to achieve the curriculum outcomes.  

Why 

We aim to develop children’s natural enquiry and curiosity for the world around them whilst making links to the past, fostering enquiry and helping children to build on existing knowledge and to grow as historians. 

We aim to teach them the importance of how history has shaped the world around us and how we live our lives today.  

How 

  • To use teaching that is innovative, stimulating hands on encouraging children to form connections between historical events. 
  • Using the seven principles of learning as a vehicle to develop interpersonal skills, creativity, critical thinkers and a unique child. 

What 

  • 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 humankind. 
  • 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.