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History & Geography

Our vision:

At West Town Primary Academy, it is our intention to open the children’s eyes to the wider world around them. As a staff, we strongly believe that as well as supporting the children’s understanding of the heritage, history and geographical features of Peterborough and our local area, we inspire the children to be curious about the wider landscapes and people of the world, both now and in different historical contexts, while also drawing on the children’s personal experiences, cultures and daily lives.

Through history, children can understand how the past has affected the present; through geography, they can recognise their place in the world now and how their actions can affect this. A clear knowledge of cause and consequence through both subjects can shape the decisions they make for the future.

Intent:

In designing our geography curriculum, our whole staff decided upon three focus strands: space, environment and place, encompassing human and physical geography. In history our focus strands are; Technology and science, power, cultural developments, co-operation and conflict, individuals in history and religion.

It is our aim to provide practical, engaging experiences and opportunities that will extend pupils’ understanding of the world around them and develop their aspirations for the future. Through planning, teaching and delivering a clear progression of skills and knowledge, we have created an ambitious and cumulative curriculum to inspire curiosity and motivation.

Our aim is that each year, the children build on what they have previously learned and can make links between previous lessons and their current ones, building all the way to Year 6. Strong links, where appropriate, are also made with other curriculum subjects, particularly English.

Geography and history thread through all our class topics. The children are provided with opportunities for a depth of learning and have the time to fully understand different facets of the topic. The topics are all designed to support the children to recognise, draw on and embed the links between geography and history. We teach the children to see those links and relate what they know of the past to how the world (and their own lives) are operating today.

Implementation:

What do geography and history look like in our classrooms?

During a geography and history lessons, the classrooms are alive with discussion, enquiry and wonder. Taking place during several afternoons each week, geography and history lessons contain lots of different types of activities and teaching methods.

If you watched one of our lessons, you would see a variety of approaches including: collaborative and practical activities, lively discussions and debates as well as opportunities for research and independent learning. The children are encouraged to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, enabling them to develop a sense of empathy with people past and present. Engaging, enquiry-based opportunities lead to our children being interested and involved, often developing a real passion for the topics they are learning.

Here are the overviews for History and Geography across the school:

In KS1, you might encounter children creating maps of their classrooms and outdoor areas within school or hot-seating potential candidates for the throne in the time of the Queen Elizabeth I and how and why the Great Fire of London was so damaging. In KS2, you might see children creating a model of the Earth’s layers using different materials or participate in a debate about the morals and ethics behind the evacuation of children during World War 2.

What does geography and history look like outside the classroom?

We believe that learning should not be confined to the classroom, so we aim to provide lots of opportunities for learning outside too. We have links with the local community, for example visiting Peterborough Museum, Peterborough cathedral and Flag Fen to take part in wider curriculum events. Other examples include visits further afield to Ferry Meadows, where children have completed orienteering activities; Stibbington, where the children spent the day as evacuated children during World War II; and Hunstanton, where the children had first-hand fieldwork experience investigating the beach and its features, Katherine of Aragon festival where the children had the chance to meet Queen Katherine, The Great Fire of London where children were involved in dressing up in period costumes and experiencing what it was like to live in Tudor England. We also value bringing expertise into the classroom from other organisations and have invited visitors to share their knowledge and practical hands-on artefacts and resources to immerse the children and deepen their understanding. Examples include a Roman workshop, African drummers and professionals from the local hospital.

KS1

LKS2

UKS2:

Supporting your child’s geography and history learning at home

At West Town we encourage our children to enjoy sharing their learning with their families and carers. Sometimes, our weekly homework contains tasks to consolidate the geography and history learning that has taken place at school.

If you would like to support your child’s geography and history learning at home, there are a number of different activities and websites you can access as a starting point.