We are historians.

At Stewart Fleming Primary School, we want our pupils to be curious and excited about the past. We help them understand how people, places and societies have changed over time and how the past has shaped the world we live in today.

Through CUSP, pupils explore history using artefacts, photographs, documents, stories, educational visits and other historical sources. They learn to ask questions, make connections between different periods and use evidence to understand the past.

We encourage pupils to develop their historical vocabulary and communicate their ideas clearly. We also make links between history and other subjects to make learning meaningful and memorable.

“A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.”
(National Curriculum 2014)

CUSP

We use the CUSP Primary Curriculum to teach history. It is a knowledge-rich curriculum that builds pupils' understanding over time through teaching, retrieval and practice.

CUSP develops pupils' ability to think like historians:

• Chronology – understanding when things happened.
• Cause and Consequence – understanding why things happened and what happened as a result.
• Change and Continuity – understanding what changed and what stayed the same.
• Similarity and Difference – comparing people, places and periods.
• Evidence – using sources and artefacts to find out about the past.
• Significance – understanding why people and events are important.
• Historical Enquiry – asking questions and investigating the past.

Pupils also develop their understanding of important historical concepts such as power, invasion, community, monarchy, society, empire and democracy.

History in EYFS

In EYFS, history is taught through Understanding the World. Children begin to learn about the past through their own experiences, families, stories, photographs and objects.

They explore what is the same and different between the past and present and begin to understand how people, places and things change over time.

CUSP History

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Year 1	Changes within living memory	The lives of significant people (Mary Anning and David Attenborough)	More lives of significant people  (Neil Armstrong, Mae Jemison, Bernard Harris Jr., Tim Peake)
Year 2	Events beyond living memory   (Great Fire of London)	Significant historical events, people, places in our locality	Significant historical events, people, places in our locality  Revisit – Events beyond living memory
Year 3	Stone Age – Iron Age	Stone Age – Iron Age  Rome and the impact on Britain	Rome and the impact on Britain
Year 4	Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots  Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor	Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor  Ancient civilisation - Egypt or Shang Dynasty	Ancient civilisation - Egypt or Shang Dynasty
Year 5	Ancient Greece	Ancient Greece  Comparison study – Maya or Benin and Anglo-Saxons	Comparison study – Maya or Benin and Anglo-Saxons
Year 6	Local History Study - how did conflict change our locality in World War 2?	Windrush generation	5 significant monarchs   or   Battle of Britain