'A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.'

Marcus Garvey

History Statement of Intent

Resilient            Respectful                 Inspired                Curious

Historians at Yeadon Westfield Junior School

At Yeadon Westfield Junior School, History is a fun, creative and engaging subject which motivates and inspires our children through gaining knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. By studying individuals, societies, cultures and countries, History enables pupils to gain awareness of what happened in the past and reasons for these events. History helps our children understand complexity, the changes and challenges over periods of time and to respect diversity of the different cultures. Local area studies enable children to develop empathy and understanding.

At Yeadon Westfield, children learn through a sequence of carefully planned lessons which develop transferable historical skills. These skills, developed through historical enquiry, have a wide application to the wider curriculum and everyday life. Our rich, exciting topics inspire our children through the inclusion of dynamic visitors, workshops, Educational Visits and a wealth of enrichment activities which bring the past back to life and which generate a curiosity for historical events, people and societies. Historical awareness also promotes responsible citizenship and challenging enquiry promotes resilience.

A curriculum map provides a framework for the History taught within YWJS. The whole school plan ensures learning is progressive and that historical skills are central to learning. Links are made between themes of History studied, so that the pupil’s knowledge is not episodic, ensuring good chronological understanding. This also gives children the skills to compare and contrast events and note trends over time.

By the end of Year 6, our children are curious historians, using a range of historical skills confidently to unpick and ask questions about the past, as well as understanding how events of the past have shaped modern Britain and the wider world.

Year 3- Settlement- How different was life in the Stone Age when man started to farm? 
We looked at evidence of how Stone Age life had started to change. We noticed that a man was standing behind a plough whipping Oxen. The oxen were pulling the plough so the man could plant seeds. We could see birds circling in the sky which made us think it was seeds that the man was placing. There was a tree stump, showing trees that had been chopped down to make things from. We agreed that this was the beginning of farming. 

We then worked in groups to put information on a spectrum sheet as to whether the evidence showed a big change from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, small change or things that had stayed the same through the whole of the Stone Age. 

Horrible Histories!

'Thing in the Hall' - January 2023

Children have returned to find the school hall had been transformed into an imaginary world this morning.

The ‘Thing in the Hall’ as it has come to be known began twenty years ago, when Mrs Piotrowicz attended a course at The Playhouse which encouraged the use of creative environments for all aspects of the curriculum, especially writing. The staff transformed the hall using drapes and props, a tradition which has continued every four years since 1999, allowing each Westfield child to experience the environment at some point during their time at the Junior school.

This year’s themes link to History work with The Stone Age (Year 3), The Maya (Year 4), The Anglo-Saxons (Year 5) and The Vikings (Year 6). All the children were given time to explore and it was super to see their eager faces with lots of comments such as 'O.M.G' and ‘This is brilliant!’ and ‘Is this really the hall?’.

Over the last two weeks, the classes were timetabled into the hall to carry out curriculum work (including meeting a variety of different characters who set the children some tasks!), school lunches took place in classrooms and assemblies will took place as reflective classroom time.

Parents were invited to come along and have a look at the hall on Friday 6th January 2023

We would like to say a big ‘Thank you’ to all the staff who worked really hard to gather the props over the Autumn term and spent a full day on the first day back after the Christmas holidays creating the environment, especially Mrs Clarkson who has coordinated the project this year. 

Here are some of the images for our 'Thing in the Hall' project known as 'Horrible Histories'

January 2023.

Please click on the link above to see more detail, including videos of the amazing transformation of our school hall and what our school community had to say about it.

"I enjoyed comparing the Viking warriors to the Ancient Greek warriors. I had to remember what we had learnt about the Ancient Greeks from Year 5. I'd prefer to be an Ancient Greek warrior because I like the heat!" Alana 6M

"I enjoyed learning about the Battle of Hastings at the end of our Viking topic. We talked about what armour the Saxons fought with compared to the Vikings. We acted out dramas to perform this. I'd prefer to be an Anglo Saxon because they're stronger." Noah G 6G

2021-2022

"I enjoyed learning about the houses the Anglo Saxons lived in. They had thatched roofs with no windows. I would like to have lived in the Anglo Saxon times because I'd have liked to have my own crops" Finley 5H

"I enjoyed learning about what food they ate. They ate avocado, coco beans, rice, corn and chocolate. I enjoyed trying the chocolate!" Brooke 4I

"I also enjoyed trying the chocolates because we got to see what different types of chocolates there were and what they ate!" Charlie B 4I

"I enjoyed going to Skelton Grange because we got to learn what life was like for a Stone Age person. We toasted bread on a fire and fish as well." Phoebe 3L

"I enjoyed looking at artefacts and working out what they might have been." Yousef 3L

"I liked the Ancient Egyptians because I liked learning about the Scarab Beetles because it was interesting learning about how they walked. I liked using the clay to make our own beetles" Heidi 3L

"I enjoyed adding key features of Egypt to a map". Marian 3L

"I enjoyed learning about the sports that Ancient Greeks played in the Olympics. They used to do chariot racing which looked fun" Zak 5H

"I liked learning about the different Greek Gods. I liked how they all had a power. My favourite was Zeus" Lucas 5A

"Elizabeth's grandad was in the war and she brought in his ID card and his medals to show us what he had achieved during the war. It was really interesting." Seth 6M

"I really enjoyed going in to the sports shed and pretending we had been in an air raid. We played games and looked at newspapers whilst we experienced the sounds" Elsie-May 6G

"I enjoyed learning about what food they eat. They ate figs ,bread, meat, apples and turnips. I liked finding out where rich Romans lived. They lived in fancy houses called villas." Maddison 4I 

"On muddy puddle day we got to roast crumpets and eat them! This is what they used to eat by toasting them on the fires!" Charlie 4I

2021-2022

Classroom Displays

Below are pictures of the History displays which are on classroom walls during the Autumn term.