“History isn’t just about the past. It’s about why we are who we are – and about what is next,” Tony Robinson

Our History curriculum is designed to develop the key skills of young historians, including:

• A strong knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from different historical periods
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate their ideas effectively to a variety of audiences
• The ability to evaluate and challenge their own perspectives and those of others using accurate historical evidence from diverse sources
• The capacity to think, reflect, debate, discuss, and draw reasoned conclusions about the past

The History curriculum intends to:

• Enable young people to look to the future by looking to the past, to assess how events have helped shaped the world of today, from a personal as well as ‘worldwide’ perspective.
• To provide an opportunity to understand how the causes and consequences of prior events have impacted on the world, both positively and negatively.
• Develop the key skills of analysis and evaluation in order to reach judgements, supporting a range of other subjects within the curriculum, as well as helping to prepare students for later life.

The Essential Characteristics of a Witham Historian

At The Priory Witham Academy, our ambition for all pupils is for them to master the following characteristics:

• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past.
• To know how to ask questions, suggest possible answers and refine claims with supporting evidence.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources and interpretations.
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgments.
• A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunity to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics.
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.