History
History can often be a closed off area - with real experiences reserved for the select few, children often learn from books and they look at objects and artefacts through a locked glass cabinet - at Hextable, we strive to be the people that open the cabinet.
National Curriculum Aims
A high quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:
- know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
- know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
Intent
History is all around us. The study of history ignites children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, culture and local community have developed over time, children understand how the past influences the present. We learn from the past. History enables children to develop a context for their growing sense of identity and a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. What they learn through history can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. It also helps children gain a sense of their own identity within a social, political, cultural and economic background. Because of this, we feel it is important for the subject to be taught discretely as well as incorporated within other curriculum subjects. At Hextable Primary School, our intent, when teaching history, is to stimulate the children’s curiosity in order for them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish and foster a love for life-long learning.
As a school, we maintain strong links to the National Curriculum guidelines to ensure all aspects, knowledge and skills of History are being taught across all year groups.
In our History lessons, we ensure that both our pupils’ substantive and disciplinary knowledge is built upon year on year.
Substantive Knowledge– The knowledge and ‘substance’ of our curriculum e.g. people, dates, features, etc.
Disciplinary Knowledge- The skills our children develop to learn how to interpret the past, learning how to 'be' a historian – how do we know what we know? e.g. changes, continuation, causes, sources, etc.
So that our pupils are able to learn more and know more, we believe it is vital that our history curriculum develops both categories.
Where appropriate, we use historical artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past.
History Heroes
We have set up our first ever history heroes club - we are a group of passionate history enthusiasts and we meet weekly to produce media about different topics each term. Our first project was a breaking news bulletin based on the Blitz in London - below are a few snapshots!
And here is the full video!
/i/video/Hextable_Blitz_3_.mp4
The Hextable History Hub
We have an exciting new addition at school - in May 2026 we proudly opened our Hextable History Hub!
Located in the heart of the junior building, the room is dedicated to the history of our wonderful school. A school with as much history as ours gathers items and pictures that document it's lifetime, this year, a team of passionate members of staff set out to collate all of this wonderful history; bringing it together in one place. The result is the Hextable History Hub, a room intended to inspire curiosity about the past in our children and adults alike. Bringing together over 1,000 photos dating back over 80 years, artefacts and objects from the school's past, and even a scrap book documenting the school's construction, the room stands as a pillar of history for our school community.
The room also houses wonderful artefacts that are used to teach our curriculum in our very own mini museum, these artefacts are used to bring our curriculum to life in the classroom by creating exciting, hand-on learning experiences.
Children and parents are encouraged to come and spend time there - you may even spot a few familiar faces!
History Hub
Implementation