Teach Primary Issue 19.6

66 | www.teachwire.net or being able to recite facts about them. By focusing on the concepts of significance, impact and legacy outlined in the national curriculum, they can apply their skills as historians and offer explanations for their answers. Children are better able to understand core historical vocabulary, reason why they think individuals were significant and discuss their impact, while being exposed to significant players in women’s, Black and Asian, and LGBTQ+ history; this also aligns with the teaching of British Values and protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act. I f you could invite any person from history to a dinner party, who would it be? The usual suspects cropped up when I asked my Y5 class: Winston Churchill, Elizabeth I, Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale. These individuals – many of whom are taught at KS1 – are memorable for good reason. However, there is a vast spectrum of historical lives still overlooked in primary teaching, which offer rewarding opportunities, both in KS1 and beyond. Not just for KS1 When building our school’s curriculum, we decided that we wanted pupils to have opportunities to encounter a diverse range of people from different cultures and backgrounds as part of their history learning – with the aim of challenging societal ‘norms’ and enriching pupils’ knowledge by linking history with other subjects such as science, geography, art and music. For example, Rudolf Nureyev, Betty Campbell, Alan Turing, Isabella Bird, Hatshepsut, Walter Tull and Maria Telkes – all carefully mapped out across the curriculum – are just some of the individuals our pupils study during their historical journey through school. This approach means that, even during science or geography-driven topics, pupils are still engaging meaningfully with historical disciplinary knowledge. These sessions are not just about children making a timeline of a person’s life PRESENT LESSONS Past lives, Highlighting underserved voices in history doesn’t mean wiping out the entire curriculum, but there are plenty of opportunities to expand, says Lindsey Rawes live up to scrutiny? These are opportunities for pupils to examine a range of sources carefully and make up their own minds. It can also introduce older pupils to the concepts of perspective and propaganda. Choosing your historical figures to study wisely also enables pupils to draw contrasts and make connections. For example, pupils in my Y5 class argued that they thought Alan Turing was just as important as Winston Churchill during World War II, as he was responsible for cracking the Enigma Code; some even argued that he was more significant, as the war might have had a different outcome without him. In Lower KS2, pupils were able to compare the lives of the pharaohs Tutankhamun and Hatshepsut. Looking at a less well-known figure alongside a more famous one means The selection process You may be wondering how and where to select significant people. There are, of course, the usual big hitters. It’s important that we don’t get rid of these well-known names – just because an individual was a white, heterosexual male doesn’t mean they should be banished from the curriculum forever. There’s still merit in teaching pupils about Henry VIII and Winston Churchill. However, we also have a chance to reframe traditional narratives. Were these people really great leaders? Do their reputations “There is a vast spectrum of historical lives still overlooked in primary teaching”