History

The aim of history teaching at Mersea Island School is to provide a quality first history education, that inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the history of the local area, and wider world through an enquiry based approach.

Our target objective of our history curriculum:

1. Ignite our students' curiosity about the world they inhabit.

2. Ensure that our students acquire and retain a deeper knowledge of historical events.

3. Foster a profound comprehension of how history has moulded our present-day society, encompassing key historical concepts like transformation and continuity, likeness and distinction, and causality.

4. Equip students with the necessary skills and methodologies to explore both recent and distant past events.

5. Support students in developing a well-founded chronological awareness and comprehension of British, local, and global history.

6. Provide access to historical facts, dates, and accounts through primary and secondary sources, including artefacts, photographs, and oral and written records.

7. Empower students to confidently employ an extensive vocabulary of historical terminology, encompassing everyday phrases and those relevant to particular historical eras.

8. Equip our students with a variety of adaptable skills, such as the capacity to conduct research and assess information sources.

How do we attain these objectives?

At MIS, our history curriculum has been meticulously crafted to progressively cultivate both knowledge and skills. It integrates historical "substantive" knowledge with historical processes, encouraging students to approach historical events with inquisitiveness, construct arguments, assess evidence critically, and formulate their own perspectives.

Each academic year revolves around two/ three questions, unveiling fresh insights throughout a series of lessons. By maintaining focus on a single question, students can establish connections, draw comparisons, and scrutinize patterns. Key conceptual themes are interwoven into the curriculum to ensure that students can identify causes and consequences of actions and developments, thereby constructing a comprehensive understanding of societal changes over time and the evolution of knowledge. Regular opportunities are provided for students to review and contemplate the content they are studying, facilitating the consolidation of newly acquired knowledge into long-term memory. Moreover, our students benefit from extracurricular opportunities, including field trips related to the subjects under examination, which further enrich their learning experience beyond the classroom.