History

At Parkside Academy, our history curriculum is designed to spark curiosity, inspire questioning, and help children develop a deep understanding of the past and its impact on the world today.

We aim for our pupils to:

• Develop a rich understanding of historical vocabulary so they can talk and write confidently about the past.
• Connect prior learning with new knowledge, building a clear sense of chronology and continuity over time.
• Make links across historical periods, recognising patterns and changes in society, culture, and human achievement.
• Understand how historians use evidence to make claims, arguments, and interpretations about the past.
• Work and think like historians, by selecting, organising, reasoning, and inferring from evidence to respond thoughtfully to questions and challenges.

Our History curriculum is progressive and builds upon knowledge previously taught.  It is organised into six substantive concepts and six disciplinary knowledge strands:

Substantive Concepts

• Community
• Knowledge 
• Invasion 
• Civilisation
• Power
• Democracy

Disciplinary Knowledge

• Chronology
• Cause and consequence
• Change and continuity
• Similarity and difference
• Evidence
• Significance

Through engaging lessons, hands-on experiences, and enquiry-led topics, we help our pupils see history not as a series of dates and events, but as a story of people, choices, and ideas that continue to shape our world today.

We also aim to enrich our children’s learning wherever possible through a range of interesting historical opportunities.

These include:

Visits to the school to supplement learning.

Experience days for both Anglo Saxon and Stone Age units in the lake district.

A Furness Abbey trip and a Dock Museum trip to bring local history to life.

An Ancient Greek themed day.

A trip to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester.