Our history curriculum enables children to develop a well-rounded understanding of the past. We ensure our learners make links with their prior learning and build on from previous experiences to ensure they make strong connections and build a comprehensive picture during their time at Oak Tree. We learn how historians find out about the past and develop our disciplinary skills by investigating a range of artefacts and take part in immersive experiences such as Egyptian day, visiting Staircase House to spend the day as an evacuee and marching through the streets of Chester as a Roman soldier.

Through a series of lessons, pupils build their understanding of the time period, people or event being studied to answer an overarching enquiry question. Each of our 7 Big Ideas and our Golden Thread of 7 Tricky Terms are woven throughout each unit, ensuring children develop their understanding of these concepts over time. New topics are put in context of British and world history to ensure understanding of how different civilisations existed at the same time with varying levels of technological advancement.

Using the ‘Oak Sheets’ children explain what they already know and what they want to find out. At the end of the unit, children use what they have learnt to answer the enquiry question.

Flashback 4s, mini quizzes and checkpoints, for example, are used as a means of securing key knowledge in each topic area.