History

History

At Hawksworth Wood, we believe that History is about understanding stories from the past and using these stories to help us understand how the world has changed.

We are incredibly fortunate that many important events in Britain’s history have links to our area and we can use this to help us understand the wider impact of a particular story. With the locality we have Kirkstall Abbey, the Leeds-Liverpool canal, the many Victorian mills, and even a little further afield, looking at York, we can use local history to bring to life the stories from the past, firing children’s imaginations and making the past come to life.

Starting early in EYFS, we help children understand concepts such as Then and Now, using their own early memories to understand things happen in the past. Building on this in key stage 1, we begin to look at things that happen “within living memory”, and compare the past with today – looking, for example, at how toys have changed over the last 100 years.

As children progress through key stage 2, we help them learn about the chronological timeline of Britain, placing events correctly in history and understanding how the world has changed as we move from the Early Stone Age through to World War II. Our curriculum focuses on Substantive Knowledge and Disciplinary Knowledge, prompted by fascinating Historical Enquiry questions which enable the children to learn skills such as comparing historical sources, applying objective thinking and drawing conclusions based on facts.

At Hawksworth Wood we believe that History is much more than simply learning names or dates, and that we need to use these to help understand the past and how this shapes our today.

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