History

At Altham St. James’ CE Primary we are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities to engage in history. 

History is about real people who lived, and real events, which happened in the past. History is concerned with sequence, time and chronology and is the study of evidence about the past; it gives us a sense of identity, set within our social, political, cultural and economic relationships. History fires the children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world and plays an essential part in preparing us for living and working in the contemporary world.

Pupils consider how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. As they do this, children develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. They see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values.

In history, children find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions. To do this they need to be able to research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view – skills that are prized in adult life.


At Altham St. James’ we aim:

  • To instill in the children a curiosity and understanding of events, places and people in a variety of times and environments.
  • To develop an interest in the past and an appreciation of human achievements and aspirations.
  • To understand the values of our society.
  • To learn about the major issues and events in the history of our own country and of the world and how these events may have influenced one another.
  • To develop a knowledge of chronology within which the children can organise their understanding of the past.
  • To understand how the past was different from the present and that people of other times and places may have had different values and attitudes from ours.
  • To understand the nature of evidence by emphasising the process of enquiry and by developing the range of skills required to interpret primary and secondary source materials.
  • To distinguish between historical facts and the interpretation of those facts.
  • To understand that events have a multiplicity of causes and that historical explanation is provisional, debatable and sometimes controversial.

Early Years
History is taught in Reception as an integral part of the topic work through child-initiated and adult led activities. The children are given the opportunity to find out about past and present events in their own lives, and those of their families and other people they know. In the Foundation stage, history makes a significant contribution to developing a children’s’ understanding of the world through activities such as looking at pictures of famous people in history or discovering the meaning of new and old in relation to their own lives.

Key Stage 1
During Key Stage 1, pupils learn about people’s lives and lifestyles. They find out about significant men, women, children and events from the recent and more distant past in Britain and the wider world. They listen, and respond to stories and use sources of information to help them ask and answer questions. They learn how the past is different from the present.

Key Stage 2
During Key Stage 2 pupils learn about significant people, events and places from both recent and more distant past. They learn about change and continuity in their own area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history in a variety of ways, for example from political, economic, technological and scientific, social, religious, cultural or aesthetic perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in overview, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways.