Being a Historian at St Mary's

History is taught through our enquiry-led curriculum, and aims as much as possible to connect our children to national curriculum history through an exploration of their local environment. In doing this we hope this will connect them as local citizens of today with the past and with ideas, knowledge and skills needed to be global citizens in the future. 

Being a historian, it is imperative that our children understand what it is to be a historian and through this understand events, changes and how these are interlinked through time.

Through our tailored Trinity approach children are encouraged to be inquisitive, respectful and independent in their acquisition of knowledge of the past. 

Whilst learning history within our community and the rich historical locality of Wiltshire, the children are given the opportunity to be creative and ambitious in their thinking as they experience real-life, relevant and modern-day links to the past. In relation to this they are encouraged to see how history has shaped their locality and how this links to a national and international view of the world.

Through interactive opportunities, the children’s learning outcomes are maximized. Engagement is offered through community visitors, museum trips and exposure to a variety of historical artefacts.

To this end, at St Mary’s, our learners:

• receive a high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and how this fits into that of the wider world and chronology
• are inspired sufficiently so that a curiosity to know more about the past will be developed
• are equipped to ask perceptive questions, use a variety of sources of evidence, sift arguments, develop perspective and judgement and think critically, considering alternative viewpoints
• are supported and guided in their understanding of 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
• are supported to understand context, significance, proportion and balance of historical evidence, and are encouraged to draw their own conclusions.

The school's Lead Historian or History Subject Leader  is Angela Gabriel

Being a Historian

Investigating evidence of Ancient Briton engineering in Avebury.

Investigative archaeology to discover how the Ancient Britons may have built Stonehenge and Avebury.