History

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots

Our vision

At Dale Hall, our high quality History education begins in the Early Years and continues all the way through to Year 6 in a progressive manner, allowing children to build on and embed the key skills and knowledge taught in previous years. Whether children are talking about past events in their own lives or learning about the political intrigue of the Tudor period, History is a key element of all of our classrooms.

We want our children to have a coherent understanding of not only Britain's past but also that of the wider world. With such a disparity between the modern times we live in and the times of key events in the past, we hope to ignite curiosity within the children to learn more about these past events and to compare it to life in Modern Day Britain.

We encourage questions throughout our History teaching and aim to equip our pupils with the ability to ask perceptive questions and to take steps to answer them themselves too. We want children to form opinions on historical events, think critically and evaluate evidence presented to them in order to develop perspective and to understand the process of change that has happened before them and is continuing to happen now.

Within our classrooms, our topics act as the overarching theme in our cross-curricular learning and much of our History teaching will stem from these topics where purposeful and appropriate, alongside Geography, Art, Music, Maths, Writing and Science. Sometimes, our History teaching will also coincide with a class Power of Reading text.

History within our classrooms

Here are some wonderful examples of History learning at Dale Hall in many different forms.

As part of Year 5's ancient Islam topic, they visited Ipswich Mosque to learn about the 5 pillars of Islam.

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Year 6 have been investigating life during the Shang Dynasty of ancient China.

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Year 4 have been investigating Anglo Saxon artefacts.

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Year 2 have been using their timeline to understand significant events before their living memory.

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Exploring history through art and design

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Using ICT to enhance and consolidate our knowledge of the past

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Exploring history through drama and role play

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Immersive experiences are a fantastic way to experience history

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Our year 5 visit to Kentwell Hall.

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EYFS & Key stage 1

I have been lucky enough to get to see history in action during my visits to EYFS and KS1 recently. EYFS have been learning what is meant by past, present and future and talking about themselves in this context. As part of the coronation celebrations at Dale Hall, they have also been learning about monarchs from the past.

Year 2 have been telling me all about their exciting topic on castles. They are really enjoying learning about why they were built in strategic positions, like at the top of hills, and how they stored all of the provisions ready for a siege.

Teagan is year 2 really enjoys learning about history and when I asked her why, her response summed up many adult viewpoints. "If we don't learn about history, how will we know what not to do in the future!"

I can't wait to see how this knowledge is built upon as each year group moves through the school, with our whole school history focus on monarchy, exploration and settlements.

Year 1 have been looking at explorers, including Charles Darwin.

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EYFS have been learning about kings and queens from our past.

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Year 1 have been creating museums to display fossils

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Miss Laura Bailey

History Lead

As a passionate historian, I am delighted to have taken on the role as History lead at Dale Hall. With a degree in history, I have the right mix of enthusiasm and knowledge to make the curriculum exciting and enriching for all pupils. The role of the subject leader is crucial in developing history teaching, learning and resources across the school so as best to support teachers, motivate pupils, monitor progress and achieve consistently high standards.

Why not try out some of these "history at home" ideas...

Create a PowerPoint about something you love in history.
Create an eBook about something you love in history.
Create quizzes about events, people or periods of history that you are interested in.
Create a timeline of all of your favourite periods of history.
Make a mini museum at home with different pieces of information, videos, pictures and models that you’ve made and show them to your family.
Watch Horrible Histories clips and research what has been said for accuracy.
Make a time-capsule with a few of today’s items and a newspaper. Store it somewhere safe or bury it in the garden so that either you or someone in the future can see what was happening today.

We are proud members of The Historical Association.

New History skills progression overview 2023.docx

We are very proud to be working with the Thomas Wolsey 550 project to engage and encourage pride and knowledge in our local area

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We are very proud to be working with the Thomas Wolsey 550 project to engage and encourage pride and knowledge in our local area

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Diversity and inclusion in History

We believe that our history curriculum should be representative and inclusive of all learners and reflect the ways that Britain has been shaped by its interactions with the wider world.

Recent and current events have highlighted that we need, and want, to do more to ensure our history curriculum fully reflects today's students and is free from bias.