SALUSBURYHistory
We love history at Salusbury! History gives children a chance to discover and understand our world today. At Salusbury, we take an enquiry based approach and children are encouraged to ask lots of questions to foster curiosity.
History should be fun and interactive. We receive a new topic box every half term , filled with primary and secondary sources. Pupils have the opportunity to handle these sources and to ask questions about them, making connections and forming their own ideas about the way people lived. As well as this, there are opportunities for children to take part in workshops and trips and role play activities to bring history to life.
At Salusbury, we follow the National Curriculum, which has a focus on British history from the Stone Age through to present day, but as we are a diverse community, we have also included a diverse range of voices in our curriculum. This includes international history such as the Ancient Egyptians, the Mya and the Benin Kingdom, but also the importance of topics such as the British Civil Rights movement and significant individuals such as Walter Tull and Mary Seacole. Children will develop their understanding of change and continuity over time, comparing their lives with people in the past and foster a sense of chronology through each unit.
How is History Taught?
Although it is important that children learn facts, at Salusbury, we understand that history is about more than this. With each lesson, pupils discuss an enquiry question, with each lesson being a step closer to understanding the overarching enquiry question of the unit. Children will engage in debates, handle artifacts and be encouraged to revise and justify their opinions in order to foster independent critical thinking.
The key skills we teach in history are:
- Asking questions
- Using sources
- Identifying changes throughout history
- Chronology
- Cause and effect
- Vocabulary
Knowledge Organisers
At the start of every unit, children are provided Knowledge Organisers which organise the key figures, events, facts and vocabulary for the unit
Black History Month
We will be celebrating Black History Month in June with a large competition and school-wide event. At Salusbury we understand the importance of teaching diverse stories and representations of the past, so international and black history is taught throughout the year.
Adapting to COVID-19
During 2020, we took part in a school-wide project to document our lives during the pandemic. Children buried time capsules in their gardens and attics, wrote diaries and recorded vlogs of their time in lockdown!
