At Irlam Endowed, we believe the learning and teaching of History at Irlam Endowed Primary School aims to provide opportunities to understand appreciate and enjoy the multi-cultural world in which we live and to celebrate its rich diversity.

Please find our History policy below.

Planning at Irlam Endowed

At Irlam Endowed, we teach the History National Curriculum objectives. In addition to this, we have created knowledge maps for each History topic covered in key stage one and two.

Our Curriculum

The history of our locality has numerous links.  We feel it is very important for the children to develop their understanding of the chronological aspects, the historical changes and the reasons behind each era by seeing and experiencing it for themselves.  Ordsall Hall in Salford is a Tudor Manor and as such we cover the Tudor reign in Year 4 as part of the history objectives.  Irlam Station and Prince’s Park are wonderful examples of times gone by as there once stood a Hall in the park, dating from Saxon times, and Irlam station was a link between Liverpool and Manchester.  The Year 6 children in fact travel on a train from here as they relive the pain and fears endured by children during World War II.

The dominant feature of Irlam is the Manchester Ship Canal and our pupils visit this and learn of the History behind it and the links to the Victorian Industrial Revolution.  They can see it flow in to the distance as it reaches Salford and Manchester in one direction and Liverpool in the other. 

Further afield, the children will visit a variety of Museums including Bolton Museum with its wealth of Egyptian artefacts, Staircase House in Stockport for links to The Great Fire of London and The Imperial War Museum at Salford Quays.

National Curriculum Subject Content

Early Years

Understanding the World ELG: Past and Present

• Pupils will talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society
• Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class
• Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.

Key stage One

Pupils should develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented

Pupils should be taught about:

• changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life
• events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]
• the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell]
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

Key stage Two

Pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

In planning to ensure the progression described above through teaching the British, local and world history outlined below, teachers should combine overview and depth studies to help pupils understand both the long arc of development and the complexity of specific aspects of the content.

 Pupils should be taught about:

• changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
• the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
• the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor
• a local history study
• a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066