The aim of history at Acton CEVC Primary School is to develop skills of enquiry and investigation through:

• Teaching history in interesting and creative ways, by applying skills from literacy, art, and drama. There are many history focussed visits and visitors across the year which allow the children to experience learning first hand, by looking at artefacts from history, and dressing up in the style of the period;

• Encouraging children to explore and learn from first and second hand evidence. Children challenge their current knowledge, and persevere with their learning to debate ideas and beliefs;

• Understanding the methods of historical enquiry, by keeping an open mind, and generating questions and ideas, making guesses and speculating possible explanations;

• Showing compassion towards other cultures and religions, as well as the beliefs and opinions of others within class discussion and debate;

• Gaining historical perspective through placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history, and making compassionate responses to world events.

We offer a rich and varied range of teaching approaches to achieve these ends, always striving to challenge every one of our pupils to make the maximum progress regardless of their starting point, with an understanding that different levels of support may be required to help them achieve their goals.

Pupil Voice

"I like looking at photos of when we were babies and thinking about how we grow up." (Year 1 pupil)

"I enjoyed learning about WWII. I brought pictures in of my Grandad who was in WWII. I was also really proud of my homework poster. I did some research but most of what I wrote was my own and I learnt lots of new facts." (Year 6 pupil)

"The part that interested me the most was when you could compare what it [The Industrial Revolution] was like and how it had changed. I like looking at the changes. You could see it all in detail on the paintings." (Year 6 pupil)

"In our Crime and Punishment topic, we compared the different time periods. What punishments were like then and also comparing it to modern day." (Year 5 pupil)

(Discussing Y4 trip to Colchester Castle)

"The part that interested me most in our Romans topic was when we went to Colchester Castle. There were cracks in the walls and glass chambers with all the different things they’ve discovered. There was a bow and arrow game. We had to fling it and get it on the target. "

"It was actually a Norman castle. It was about 2000 years old. It had vaults underground so it would be a good place to have as the castle."

"We saw chambers and it had survived for thousands or millions of years. We learnt about buildings- about what they used to build. If the Celts weren’t slaves for the Romans they would have chopped their head off."

Today, we celebrated the lives of famous people throughout history, by dressing up as Pre World War II historical figures and engaging in a series of activities learning about people who have changed our world. We worked together in family groups during the morning to learn about either John Logie Baird, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Alexander Graham Bell or Ada Lovelace. We explored facts about these famous faces, as well as participating in a hands on activity, such as computer programming, making potato powered light bulbs, designing telephones and televisions of the future, building a boat to hold a weight, and making a parachute.

The children looked incredible in their costumes, so thank you for all the hard work and effort which went into their making.