We teach our History and Geography through our topics – you can see our topic plans in the year group pages under ‘Curriculum and Year Groups’. We try to make sure that our topics give children a different perspective on the world. We make sure that our topics come alive through first hand experiences and through our visits and residential programmes.
“I can” statements – HISTORY
| I can … | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
| Time | Know and use the concepts of yesterday, last week, last year | Locate the 12th century and 1600 on a 1mm-1year timeline. | Order key medical developments and place on a timeline | Order key events & developments of Industrial Change in Sheffield and UK | Place key events from topics on 3000BCE to 2000CE timeline | Place key events in the settlement of Britain on 3000BCE to 800CE timeline |
| Place key events on a simple timeline of their lives. e.g. When were they in Nursery? | Know that the further we go back in time, the more different life was | Evaluate which key medical development over the past 200 years has had the most impact | Make a 1mm to 1 year timeline to show the history of Ancient Greece & Sheffield | Recognise the difference between fact, history & conjecture | Research sources and present findings “Did King Arthur exist?” | |
| Everyday Life | Know that when there were Dinosaurs, there were no people. | Describe & contrast aspects of everyday medieval life | Describe what life was like for children in Sheffield in 1930s to 1950s | Research and present an aspect of everyday life in Ancient Greece | Describe how rulers have used religion to support their power & justify their actions: Babylonian Kings, Abbasid Caliphs, Montezuma, Kings of Spain, Donald Trump | Compare an aspect of life in Roman, Saxon & Viking Britain |
| Look at old photos of Sharrow and describe what is different | Look at a theme and compare with today: disease, medicine, poverty etc | Describe a day in the life of a 1940s Sheffield child. | Identify key similarities & differences between life in an Ancient Greek city and Sheffield today | Analyse how the English language reflects the history of settlement in Britain | ||
| Sources & Evidence | Know that photographs and people’s memories can help us learn about the past | Recognise the importance of Samuel Pepys’s diary for our understanding of the Great Fire | Look at old photographs and footage of Sheffield and identify things that have changed | Evaluate the writings of Ancient Greeks. What can we learn from them? | Read primary written sources – what do they tell us about life in Ancient Mesopotamia? | Evaluate the writings of Bede and Tacitus. How much can we trust them? |
| Explain how fossils help us learn about dinosaurs. | Visit a castle & recognise there are limits to what we can know about life in the past | Visit Bishop’s House and explain how we can use artefacts to help us understand the past | Consider bias in the writings of ancient Greeks. How might this affect what they say? | Explain why written history is often about the lives of the rich and powerful | Explain the problems of understanding the past without any written sources | |
| Historical Change | Describe the life of a famous explorer or Pirate. | Know the importance of the life of Nelson Mandela & the struggle against apartheid | Describe the life and work of Florence Nightingale & Mary Seacole | Evaluate the importance of the work of Lord Shaftesbury | Research & present an analysis of the effects of the Civil Rights Movement in USA | Evaluate the importance of the work of Charles Darwin to our understanding of the world |
“I can” statements – GEOGRAPHY
| I can … | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
| Map Skills | Recognise that people use maps to find things | Draw a map of my journey to school | Map a small area of Sheffield using simple symbols and keys | Use different maps of Sheffield to locate places and map journeys [inc. Ordnance Survey] | Use lines of latitude and longitude to locate places. | Use detailed physical maps to explain settlement of England [10,000 BCE to 800AD] |
| Read a pirate map and work out where the treasure is. | Read a simple map of the journey from Sheffield to Filey | Use fieldwork to observe human activity and record/present findings | Observe and collate data to “zone” an area on a map of Sheffield. | Recognise and use time-zones and identify the Greenwich meridian | Use 6 figure grid references on Ordnance Survey maps to locate positions | |
| Locational Knowledge | Give directions using “left/right/near/far /forwards/backwards” | Use simple compass directions. | Locate and Name the Four Nations of the UK and locate major cities on a map | Locate and name the key countries of Europe | Identify the countries, major cities and key physical features of North America | Locate and name the key geographical features of the UK |
| Know the names of some of the oceans and continents | Locate England on a map of Europe & describe its position | Map how food is transported from where it is grown to markets [local and worldwide] | Explain how the local geographical features contributed to Industrialisation. | Explain how climate changes at different lines of latitude | Use scales to calculate distances on different maps of the UK | |
| Physical Geography | Know that some places on earth are very different from Sheffield and describe some key differences. | Compare and contrast a location with Sheffield. | Recognise different world climate zones and how they impact on agriculture | Explain why there are so many volcanoes and earthquakes around Greece | Describe features of & locate deserts. Explain the water cycle | Identify the role rivers played in settlement and the natural barriers to expansion of peoples. |
| Describe the weather and predict the weather in different seasons | As above using some key geographical vocabulary: coast, cliff, valley, mountain etc. | Explain the importance of rainfall and the implications of global warming on agriculture | Measure, compare and contrast the weather pattern of Sheffield and Greece. | Explain the importance of irrigation and water conservation schemes in Ancient Iraq and the Western US | Explain the importance of the North Sea & English Channel as route for settlement, trade, ideas | |
| Human Geography | Name and describe key features of Sheffield as a city | Compare & contrast the buildings and jobs of people in Sharrow with the countryside | Describe the land use around Sheffield and explain the importance of farmland. | Compare and contrast the geography and human activity of Yorkshire and Crete. | Compare and contrast Baghdad and New York as centres of world trade & culture | Explain how human activity since the end of the Ice Age has shaped the land. |
| Link human activities to key places in Sheffield: hospital, supermarket, school, station etc | Explain why there are differences e.g. Why are no big supermarkets in Castleton? | Recognise the importance of a healthy and prosperous countryside to the nation’s well-being | Explain how the natural resources & geography of Crete and Sheffield have influenced their history | Explain how climate and vegetation belts influence human activity and economies | Analyse place names around the Sheffield area to map historical settlement. |