At Herne Juniors, we believe it is extremely important to help develop curious learners who are inspired to learn about the past without the fear of failure. We provide our children with enjoyable and inquisitive lessons that cause them to question the past, reflect on the present and understand how they can influence the future. As well as following the National Curriculum, we have chosen Topics which we believe our children will engage with, and therefore their learning has a purpose. Our children are provided opportunities to investigate questions in practical ways, whether that is becoming detectives by identifying Primary and Secondary sources, or interpreting the information provided and voicing their opinions through presentations, debates and more.

Throughout their History lessons, our children are given opportunities to explain and present their new knowledge through writing pieces as well as Drama, Computing, Art, and Design & Technology (DT). This helps concrete what our children have learned and help them to piece together their knowledge from that topic as well as others.

Our History and Geography curriculum is taught on a 4 year cycle which the whole school learn together, though adapted to suit every child’s ability. By embracing this whole school approach, our school community, including parents and friends, have been able to come together and share in the children’s learning which has made our History curriculum come alive.

In our first year cycle (2019-2020), one of the topics our school studied was World War II. During this topic, our children were able to develop their knowledge in class and share this with one another across the school as well as at home. Their learning was extended further when we performed a whole school evacuation day. Our children and staff still talk about it today and enjoy looking back at pictures of the activities, costumes and props worn, as well as the visitors who kindly brought in real-life artefacts as well as stories. Today, our children are able to make links and comparisons to how life has changed and why.

Please click on the icons below to see how we have structured our 4 year cycle as well as pictures of our children in our gallery, as they embrace their learning in History.

Below you will also find how we ensure there are no missing gaps in our children’s learning. This is by updating our progression of skills documents for each topic studied. We also assess our children at the end of each topic on their History skills, which you can see by clicking on the Assessment icon below.