History Aims

At Holy Family we aim to offer a high quality history education that inspires pupils' curiosity about the past.  This will equip them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.

We aim for our history curriculum to help pupils to appreciate the complexity of people's lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. Children will gain a sense of their own identity within a social, political, cultural and economic background.

At Holy Family, we are teaching the National Curriculum; studying a range of historical periods, such as the Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, the Romans, Saxons and Vikings and the Tudors. Generally speaking, the curriculum is arranged in chronological order so that the younger children learn about ancient civilizations of the past and older children study more recent times.

An appreciation of history starts in EYFS where the children learn about their families, toys old and new.  They learn about different countries and their foods music and traditions. They use 'In the Moment' to explore a variety of things that help them to understanding their world past and present.

We also encourage educational visits as we believe that trips to places like a Colchester Castle or Layer Marney Tower serve beautifully to bring history to life. The photographs of children actively participating in historical activities hopefully help to explain not only why so many pupils enjoy the subject at Holy Family but why history plays such an important role in their education and personal development and why the children do so well.