Aims and ambitions  

At OBS, we educate our pupils, including SEND, through coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Using a clearly planned out curriculum, our children are equipped with a range of historical skills to inspire their curiosity to know more about the past. Learning is accessible to all and is adapted to meet the needs of the children. Teaching of History progressively builds pupils historical skills to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Our children feel empowered to reflect on the past and its impact on the present.

Sequence and Progression

In EYFS, we teach History through the Early Learning Goal of: Understanding of the World (Past and Present). This involves talking about the lives of people and their roles in society, knowing some similarities and differences between things in the past and now and understanding the past through books read in class. We then follow the National Curriculum in Years 1 to Year 6. We have adapted the NC in to the Old Basford Curriculum Progression map and aligned this with the OBS creative topic based approach to learning. The units of learning are age appropriate and progressive from EYFS to KS2, the five main subject specific skills that bind the History curriculum together are: Chronological understanding, range and depth of historical knowledge, interpretations of history, historical enquiry and organisation and communication for which I have produced exemplification documents. Each History topic has four key knowledge based themes that run through the school: empire/ democracy/ everyday life/ technology. At the beginning of each lesson, key concepts and subject specific vocabulary are revisited and built upon. In addition, the learning objectives linked to knowledge and skills are shared explicitly to the children.

Children leave OBS ready and equipped to face the next stage in their History education.

Useful History Documents

Welcome

2024-25

Welcome to a wonderful new year where, as usual, there will be lots of lovely history taking place. Below, you can see some highlights from last year. Otherwise, watch this space!

Amazing Artefacts - Year 5

This afternoon, Year 5 became historians and looked at a variety of artefacts from Ancient Greece.

Toys

Year 1

Year 1 have had a lot of fun learning about how toys have changed within and beyond living memory.

Maya Angelou

In our writing this week, we are looking at the story of Maya Angelou. We started off by learning her incredible story and then doing some drama based on it.

Fantastic Fieldwork and Theatre Tour

Year 5 started this week off with an exciting school trip. First, we went to the Forest Recreation Ground to study the site of the Goose Fair (which still had lots of stuff there!) and carry out some geography fieldwork. After, we had a BRILLIANT backstage tour of Theatre Royal, where we learned a lot about the theatre's history. Thank you to everyone who helped us and to Theatre Royal for giving us the VIP treatment! 

Stonehenge

Year 3 learned about Stonehenge and created different representations of it that would stand.

Trip to Clover Green

Year 5 went on a trip to Clover Green today. We talked to residents about their experiences of the Goose Fair as well as Nottingham. They proved a fountain of knowledge and we learnt so much about the history of theatres, the Goose Fair and much more! Thank you so much for having us Clover Green. 

History of Nottingham's Theatres

This afternoon, Year 5 looked at a variety of historical sources and analysed them to find out about the many theatres that used to be in Nottingham

Year 5 Local History

Goose Fair Research

As part of their 'Nottingham Nights' topic, Year 5 have looked at a variety of primary and secondary history sources to see how the Goose Fair has changed over the last 100 years. Needless to say, we found a lot of ways it has changed and some where it has stayed the same.

Year 3

Stone Age

Year 3 started off their Stone Age topic by having a very exciting archaeological dig. Many artifacts were discovered!