Humanities
At Burnt Oak Junior School we focus our teaching of History and Geography through the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) topics across each year group.
Geography
A good geographer is someone who is excited about the dynamics and aspects of the world; they have an enthusiasm to better understand the people, places and environments within it. At Burnt Oak, geographers are encouraged to understand why and how places are changing and how this has had an impact on the past, present and future world we live in. Not only does it connect our individual geographers to their community by identifying, locating and exploring their local surroundings, it allows the children to link these to wider contexts around the world. Underpinning this is a strong component that deepens children’s geographical thinking and therefore makes them an excellent geographer.
Every year group chooses a new unit of work each half term and Geography is taught through these units in blocks.
Year 3 topics include; ‘Vanishing Rainforests’, in which children visit the Rainforest exhibition in London Zoo, to examine the rainforest environment.
Year 4 topics include; ‘Active Planet’, in which children study their local environment and go into the woods to build their own shelters.
Year 5 topics include; ‘Going Global’ in which children visit the Thames Barrier and study the effect of living near a river.
Year 6 topics include; ‘Moving People’ and ‘ where children learn about international migration, tourism and trade.
History
High-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils 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.
The IPC provides certain key learning goals, which we use to help plan a varied and exciting curriculum for the children.
During their time at Burnt Oak Junior School, children learn how:
- To gather information from a variety of sources (including books, videos, internet, drama and role play, visiting speakers and trips).
- To understand how particular aspects of history have impacted on present day.
- To make connections and draw conclusions between significant historical events.
- To place events, people and changes into chronological order and consider how these changes have affected the wider world.
- To understand a wide range of historical vocabulary.
- To describe and identify reasons for and results of historical events.
- History affects lives of people in the present.
Highlights of our history topics include:
Year 3: Learning about people from history who have made a real difference to the world and dressing up as their favourite historical figure.
Year 4: Spending the day on “The Golden Hinde” and dressing up in role to experience life as a Tudor explorer 500 years ago.
Year 5: Shooting off into the starts to learn about “The Space Race” and how discoveries from the past have a major influence on the present.
Year 6: Travelling through the “Time Tunnel” to experience life as a child evacuee during World War Two.
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