Subject Leadership 

Mrs Helen Bullen

INTENT

Hoddlesden St Paul’s Church of England primary school aims to provide its pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum, set within a caring and supportive Christian community in which each member of the school is valued and respected and is empowered to reach their full potential.

We aim to provide every child, regardless of their ability a high-quality History curriculum that encourages and nurtures their natural curiosity about the past. Our curriculum will give pupils a broad and coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We place an emphasis on the skills of a Historian, and we provide a range of experiences that allow pupils to develop these skills such as asking questions, interpreting sources and making links across periods of time. The History curriculum draws from and makes full use of the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality.

History Aims 

→ To develop an interest in the past.

→  To develop knowledge and understanding of events in British, European and world history and appreciate how things have
changed over time.

→  To help understand that events in history have an effect on how the world is today.

→  To develop their understanding of chronology.

→  To compare our lives to those of people living long ago.

→  To help children understand their place in society and develop theirs sense of citizenship and cultural heritage.

→  To look at the importance of sources and how they help us find out about the past.

→  To encourage open, enquiring minds that are aware of the fact that individual views will be biased.

→  To develop skills of enquiry, interpretation, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.

History Club 2023

This year in History club, we are becoming Historians and investigating the mystery of ‘The Princess in the Tower’. We started off by looking at an image of the two princess and trying to work out who they were, when they lived and what they were doing. We then found out some background information about the two boys and the War of the Roses. We are going to look at different sources of evidence to find out what happened to the two princess; were they murdered by their uncle or did they escape? 

Journey Through The decades History Week

To celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee each class has learnt about the Queen, significant events from her life and all about the Royal Family. To celebrate the 70 years that she has been on the throne, each class took one of the 7 decades and learnt all about it including significant events, fashion, food, music, technology, tv and film, toys and more. The children have loved immersing themselves in their decade and it has been lovely to have the support of parents and families who have enhanced the learning with their own memories and experiences. We finished it off with a dress up day where the children and staff came dressed in red, white and blue or in the style of the decade, we all looked amazing!  Please look on the class pages for more photos and details of what the children have been up to this week. 

Our Learning

Have a look at some of our wonderful displays that showcase the fabulous History learning that has been happening around school.

A Roman Re-enactment

Year 4 have been learning about the Romans. We finished our topic by holding a Roman army re-enactment. We practiced the testudo (or tortoise) formation using our shields to protect each other. We practised marching in our formation without breaking it, which was quite a challenge. We had a special visitor to help us with our re-enactment, George, who is a Historian and an archaeologist. He showed us some Vindolanda stones that were written in Latin and their translations. we were surprised to learn that the messgaes included birthday party invitations, shopping lists and complaining letters. We then had a go at writing our own Vindolanda stones. We had a fantastic afternoon.  

Interviewing Real Life Sources

Year 2 had a wonderful afternoon, interviewing Miss Riding’s Grandma about her experiences of going on holidays to the Seaside in the 1950s. She answered their questions and gave them lots of interesting information, which will help them with their History learning all about holidays in the past this half term. 

History Club

At History Club, we have been thinking about Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. We began by looking at a photograph and thought about the questions; Who is in the photograph? When was it taken? What kind of people do you think they are? We discussed our ideas and the reasons we had them for example everyone thought the photograph had been taken a long time ago because of the clothes they were wearing and the hairstyles they had. It was then revealed that the photograph was of Queen Elizabeth II as a baby with her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. We then had some pictures from Queen Elizabeth II’s life and we had to put them in the correct order to create a timeline. We were all surprised that our Queen was a driver and mechanic during World War II. We have thought about some of the main events of her life such as when her uncle abdicated the throne, her father dying, getting married to Prince Philip and her coronation day. We looked at the events of her coronation day and found out some interesting facts such as it rained all day and that she needed a push to get moving because of her heavy dress dragging on the carpet. We also looked at some true or false statements about how the people in the UK celebrated the Queen’s coronation, we were very surprised to find out that a new dish called coronation chicken was created for the event. Finally, we designed some plates and bunting to celebrate the upcoming platinum jubilee. Mrs Blackwell was lucky enough to take her children to the children’s Party at the Palace for the Queen’s 80th birthday. She brought in some pictures, the invitations and letter from the palace and the goody bag they received on the day. The children enjoyed looking at them all and asking Mrs Blackwell lots of questions about her experience. 

Primary Sources

Year 2 have been learning all about different astronauts going to the moon. We are very lucky that one of our Grandads met the astronauts that went to the moon in 1969 when they visited England. He has shared a photograph he took of them and also a newspaper report from when it happened. The children in Year 2 have been able to look at these sources of evidence and discuss what things they tell us about the astronauts and their mission as well as what life was like at that time. 

Investigating Historical Sources

Year 5 have been looking a range of sources of evidence from World War 2. 

Looking at Chronology

Children are looking at periods of History they have previously studied and trying to create a timeline to show where they fit in the chronology.

Investigating Artefacts

Year 4 children were looking at a picture of a historical artefact and being Historians. They were looking for clues to tell them what it was, what it would have been used for, what it was made out of and who it might have belonged to. They spotted some super details and some children even worked out that it was a lantern. They were very surprised to learn that it belonged to Guy Fawkes and that he was carrying it when he got arrested. 

The History of Theatres

During our Hoddlesden Globe topic, Year 5 children looked at how theatres have developed over time by looking at pictures of theatres from different periods of time. They then created a timeline to answer the question ‘How have theatres changed over time?’

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