History

History is held with high regard at Muswell Hill Primary School.

The school’s own rich history, within the context of the local area, is a celebrated and an inspiring feature of the school. Our children leave primary school with a rich understanding of their local history. The history curriculum at Muswell Hill Primary School draws from and makes full use of the immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality. Using this familiar history as a foundation of their ever-developing skill set our children are able to have a sophisticated knowledge rich understanding of history on a global scale in a more abstract and contextualized manner.

Topics/themes are informed by the national curriculum and have been developed alongside one of our partners Haringey Education Partnership. Using our innovation grant, HEP has partnered with the best thinkers and experts in curriculum design and delivery. Working in partnership with Christine Counsell, HEP has designed, written and resourced a Key Stage 2 Humanities Curriculum. The history curriculum at Muswell Hill is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy - please see the humanities curriculum statement for deeper understanding.

In line with the national curriculum 2014, the curriculum at MHPS aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world which helps to stimulate pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
• Are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
• Begin to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

“Children leave MHPS with the understanding of multi-narratives; both locally and globally (and the impact on each other), question why some history is not evident in sources and acknowledge what is not seen also tells a story. Our children understand the origins of all religions and how the UK became the multicultural place it is today. They have a good foundation for secondary school history - having been exposed to everything the curriculum lays out and more.”