History
At Applegarth, we believe it is essential that our children are given opportunities to gain knowledge and understanding not only of Britain’s past, but also the wider world. Our history curriculum strives to instigate curiosity to understand the past and encourages children to make links between previous topics learnt. Every child has the chance to gain substantive knowledge of topics related to invasions and empires, settlements and social history, crime and punishments and communication and invention. Coupled with the substantive knowledge, children are provided with opportunities to develop their disciplinary knowledge; these include skills such as identifying cause and consequence, recognising similarities and differences and using a range of sources to find out about the past. This gives children the ability to have meaningful historical discussions and debates and analyse sources effectively. The constant revisiting of substantive topics through each Key Stage supports children in discussing the process of change through time and make strong links across their learning.
Geography
Within our Geography curriculum, children develop an understanding and fascination of the world around them. Beginning in Key Stage 1 where children learn about their own local area and environment and progressively zoom out into the wider world. The teaching of Geography provides children with knowledge of physical and human processes within a diverse range of places within different continents of the world. The content of the curriculum gives opportunities for pupils to have a concrete understanding of locational and place knowledge, environmental impact and cultural diversity. From early key stages and beyond, pupils begin to develop skills to help them “think like a geographer” through developing disciplinary knowledge such as map skills, research and enquiry and understanding cause and consequence. We aim to excite children about the possibilities of what the world has in store for them to explore and experience. We believe children should leave Applegarth with a sense of their place in the world (both culturally and physically) and a willingness to enquire into the world around them.