History Curriculum Intent

At Radcliffe on Trent Junior School, we believe that history helps children to understand the past and how it has shaped the world in which they live today. Our curriculum is ambitious, inclusive and enquiry-led, enabling every child to develop a secure chronological understanding of British, local and wider-world history while becoming increasingly confident in thinking and working as a historian.

Through our commitment to Making Learning Memorable, pupils encounter significant people, societies, civilisations and events from across the past. They develop their understanding of chronology, change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarity and difference, and historical significance. Pupils learn that our understanding of the past is constructed from evidence and that accounts of the past can differ, learning to question sources, consider interpretations and use evidence to reach informed conclusions. As pupils move through the school, they revisit and connect previous learning, building an increasingly coherent understanding of the past.

Our school values are woven naturally through history. Pupils Be Curious as they ask questions and investigate evidence about the past; Be Brave as they challenge assumptions, consider different interpretations and justify their own conclusions; and Be Kind as they encounter the lives, experiences and perspectives of people from different periods, societies and cultures.

History at ROTJS also helps pupils understand the story of the community in which they live. Through local history and connections with Radcliffe-on-Trent and the surrounding area, pupils explore how their locality has changed and how local stories connect with wider developments in British and global history. Alongside this, encounters with diverse societies and civilisations broaden pupils' understanding of the achievements, experiences and perspectives of people across different times and places.

By the time pupils leave ROTJS, we want them to have the knowledge, curiosity and historical understanding to make sense of the past and its relationship with the present. They will be able to ask thoughtful questions, use and evaluate historical evidence, recognise change and continuity, explain causes and consequences, consider different interpretations and construct increasingly informed historical arguments.