Historical Enquiry

Historical enquiry can be described as ‘understanding the methods of enquiry for finding out about the past from historical evidence and how these can be used to make historical claims.’

Children will know:

• the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
• we can tell different stories about the same history.
• not all the sources from the past can be trusted. We always need to be careful when using any evidence from the past, e.g. it can be inaccurate, incomplete, unfair. With care, however, we can make some use of all information – it always tells us something about the past.
• we never know everything that happened in the past so it means that we have to work out things that are likely to have happened and that means giving opinions and ideas rather than definite facts.
• we find out about the past from different sorts of information/sources such as written, artefacts and pictures. Some parts of history have many sources, but others have very few.
• there is a difference between a source and evidence. The source is the information but it is you or the historian who uses it as evidence in your own way to answer your questions. A good historian can ask many questions about the sources they use.

Continuity and Change

Continuity and change can be described as ‘understanding how and why change occurs in history, why and how things stay the same and analysing trends across time.’

Children will know:

• A world existed before they and those around them were born but their world today is connected to the past.
• Change does not always mean progress.
• There can be ‘bad/negative’ changes. There are differences between change, progress and development.

Cause and Consequence

Cause and consequence can be described as ‘the identification and description of reasons for and results of historical events, situations and changes studied in the past’

Children will know:

• people in the past had feelings and emotions and had reasons for their actions.
• it is not always easy to work out why things happened and why people did or thought things.
• reasons and events usually lead to results (sometimes more than one) but things did not always turn out as planned.
• people in the past did not know the same as we do today but they were not really more stupid.
• when things happened, it was often confusing and uncertain for people and they did not know how things would turn out.

Chronological Knowledge 

Chronological knowledge involves an understanding of how to chart the passing of time and how some aspects of history happened at similar times in different places. Chronology underpins historical understanding.

Children will know:

• about time concepts and chronology in a variety of ways, despite their complex nature.

• chronology has many different facets, including sequencing and duration.
• a world existed before they and those around them were born – some things occurring many years ago before there were ways of writing about the past.
• human time is only a small part of time.
• the past can be described in different ways – dates, period labels, divisions such as decade, century etc.

Similarity and Difference

Similarity and difference can be described as ‘the ability to identify and explain similarities within and across periods and societies studied’. Similarity and difference relates to historical analysis of the extent and type of difference between people, groups, experiences or places in the same historical period.

Children will know:

• people in the past did not always think that the same things were as important in their lives as you do today.
• the past was different from today: some things have changed (slowly or quickly) but some things are the same.
• different historical events were taking place at the same time in history.

Significance

Historical significance can be described as ‘understanding and suggesting reasons why events, periods, societies and people may be considered historically significant.’ Significance focuses on how and why historical events, trends and individuals are ascribed historical significance. 

Children will know an event/development is significant if they are:

• remarkable – it was remarked upon by people at the time and/or since

• remembered – it was important at some stage in history within the collective memory of a group or groups

• resulted in change – it had consequences for the future

• resonant – people like to make analogies with it; it is possible to connect with experiences, beliefs or situations across time & space

• revealing – of some other aspect of the past’.