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History

'We are not makers of history. We are made by history' - Martin Luther King

At Mount Hawke Academy, we aim to establish, develop and nurture in the children a love for learning about history. We do this through our motivating and varied curriculum, which covers local, national and international topics.   This love of history begins in Reception with our youngest children, where it is mainly explored through 'Understanding the World', where the children think about now and then, starting with what is known and understood and working back in time from this.

The  wide range of themes studied means that by the end of their time with us the children will have a good historical knowledge of the wider world and of their own personal history. The children are taught to use a variety of historical concepts which further develop their knowledge and thinking to prepare them for their next stage of learning. Developing a sense of chronology is important to us too, and through this the children are able to increase their understanding of how the world has changed over time.

We teach history through an enquiry based approach. Historical enquiry allows our children to question, interpret, explain and communicate their reasoning as an historian. Each history unit is launched with an overarching theme, such as ‘Roman Britain’ or ‘The Moon Landings’, with an umbrella question. Each lesson is then based around an enquiry question relating to the unit. By the end of the unit, through the use of enquiry questions and discussions, children will have remembered key knowledge and understanding of the time they have studied. Within lessons, children will use and interrogate a range of primary and secondary sources to deepen their knowledge on their chosen theme. As children move throughout the school, their knowledge grows across different time periods and they build upon and develop their learning from previous years.

Within the classroom, history lessons are enriched with a range of different resources and artefacts. Lessons are further enriched outside of the classroom with a range of outdoor learning opportunities for all year groups such as visits to Geevor Mine and Kresen Kernow.

Attention is given to ensuring that children understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today. We also feel that developing children’s skills of enquiry is important so that they are able to ask not just what happened in history, but also to ask and discover why.

We aim to help our children gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, inspiring their curiosity to know more about the past. We equip the children to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. 

History helps us to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as our own identity and the challenges of our time.

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