Our vision for Stretton children as curious, resilient, and critical historians will be founded on their successful study of three key elements of historical enquiry, and progression towards the following endpoints by the end of Year 6:

• Skills of historical enquiry. Children learn how historians gather and interrogate evidence; they recognise and engage critically with a variety of primary and secondary sources, and they develop understanding of the contribution testimony and corroboration makes to effective historical analysis. They develop their capacities for empathy, as well as for critical reflection and questioning, becoming aware of the importance of exploring historical perspective and bias when seeking to understand the past and its implications for human development. They learn to present and construct arguments supported by historical evidence that address questions related to specific historical periods and places as well as those tackling broader issues that highlight commonalities in human experience.  Alongside the development of formal skills of historical argument, children also explore how historical understanding can be shared in other ways, including, for example, via exhibitions, historical fiction, narratives, reports, and biographies.

• Chronological knowledge. Children learn about continuity and change in History via carefully sequenced exploration of key themes in British, local, regional/national, and world History. They can locate events they study on a timeline of human development that enables them to identify similarities, differences and connections in ideas, institutions, and human experience.

• Thematic knowledge. As children develop their historical understanding, they explore key concepts in relation to specific themes and debates. Children learn about human ingenuity and innovation, exploration and discovery, ideas and influence. They understand the mechanisms for human mobility and interaction and the implications these had for social, political and economic change.

We focus our historical enquiry on the following key themes:

• Innovation and ingenuity
• Exploration and discovery
• Power and politics
• Migration and mobility
• Beliefs and cultural influence (including language and literacy)
• Trade and Empire
• Conflict and reconciliation
• Rights, rebellion, and reformation
• Society and social change

Elements of these themes will be reviewed and revisited within various temporal and regional contexts during our programme of historical study so that, by the end of Year 6, children will have a rich range of historical knowledge on which they can draw directly and comparatively to explore deeper questions about human experience and development. They will be confident in their understanding of continuity and change, similarities and differences, and the drivers and obstacles to human progress.