History at John Ball

This page was updated: September 2022
Next update due: September 2023
Subject Lead: Katie Wampler

The significance of the History curriculum is that it can teach us about how different people across varying cultures and societies, in different places, across vast stretches of time relate to each other and affect the world and society we live in today. At John Ball, we offer a History curriculum which inspires children to be more curious about the world and its people, both past and present. Through our curriculum, our pupils have a means by which to apply their own direct experiences of the world and develop and extend it within a historical context.  Pupils will develop a broad and comprehensive knowledge of Britain’s past early on in their education, and over time build on this as well their understanding of significant people and events in world history. Pupils will also revisit History topics, providing them with opportunities to apply related knowledge, ideas and concepts—a technique called interleaving—allowing them to store information more deeply, challenging them to identify patterns and form connections.

As well as a historical understanding, at John Ball we draw from our rich locality as a source of learning based on first-hand experience and we place children’s learning in a personal context. The chronology of the curriculum is designed to be reflective and responsive to the development of children’s ever expanding world view as well as their growing capacity to understand more complex concepts rooted in history, such as democracy and ancient Greece.

Our History curriculum is designed to allow children to be critical thinkers with the skills to seek relevant information across all topics. It is by developing these critical reasoning skills, the ability to ask important questions, evaluate information from a variety of sources and form well-rounded perspectives/judgements that we aim to contribute to the growth of young, accountable world citizens.

Click here to view our History curriculum.