History and Geography at Moreland

“History and Geography stronger together but separate.”

At Moreland Primary School we are committed to delivering an exciting and stimulating topic-based curriculum encompassing History and Geography. We believe that through the rich variety of topics taught, children learn the essential knowledge, skills and understanding of the History and Geography National Curriculum.  In the units that include lessons from both subjects, the skills and knowledge that children are learning from each of the discrete subjects is made explicit, but we recognise that often Geography and History are closely interlinked and therefore, many topics will encompass learning in both subjects. Through meaningful cross – subject planning, topic units are taught in ways that strengthen links between the subjects and amplify learning.

We  have devised our own bespoke History and Geography curriculum. Topics have been carefully selected  and mapped out so that there is full coverage of the EYFS and National Curriculum objectives, opportunities to explore ideas in depth, revisit and expand upon previous learning and make links between subjects. We have chosen to go beyond the requirements of the National Curriculum to ensure we reflect the culture and experiences of the children, their families and our local community. For example, we have a wider coverage of Black History topics to ensure that Black British History is integrated into all topics where relevant. All classes also study an element of London’s history or geography in the autumn term, as we believe it is important children develop a rich understanding of the vibrant city in which they live. Through Global Citizenship lessons, children gain an in-depth understanding of environmental responsibility and sustainability and become active citizens, making a difference to the world they live in.

In English children study quality books, plays and poems that are chosen to deepen children’s understanding of the History and Geography topics. Children also have the opportunity to write like Historians and Geographers in their extended writing.

All topics are built around planned practical learning opportunities such as field work, museum visits and workshops that enrich children’s learning further. We take full advantage of our location in the heart of London through curriculum topics that explore the richness of London past and present and Moreland are proud to be the Museum of London’s champion school. The organisation of the curriculum in this way helps knowledge to “stick”, to join up learning and ensure breadth and depth in the study of all subject disciplines

History Curriculum Overview 

Intent

The History curriculum at Moreland Primary School is designed to:

• Develop pupils’ understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world in line with the EYFS and National Curriculum expectations for Key Stages 1 and 2.

• Enable children to think critically about historical events, understand chronology, and evaluate the causes and consequences of change over time.

• Foster curiosity, historical enquiry, and a strong understanding of key concepts such as empire, civilisation, invasion, democracy, and power.

• Provide a comprehensive understanding of historical timelines and the interconnectedness of events.

• Build cultural capital by exploring a diverse range of historical figures, cultures, and civilisations, including those underrepresented in traditional historical narratives and through connecting learning to museums and heritage experiences.

• Inspire a sense of identity and community through local history and shared heritage.

• Ignite curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world.

• Help students understand the diversity of human experience and the complexities of historical events.

• Develop critical thinking skills by encouraging pupils to empathise with others, argue viewpoints, and draw conclusions.

• Raise aspirations by linking learning to careers in history.

By exploring various historical periods and cultures, students gain a broad perspective of the world and their place within it. 

Implementation

The History curriculum is implemented through:

• Teaching carefully planned, engaging units aligned to the National Curriculum, covering key periods and themes, including:

  • Changes within living memory

  • Events beyond living memory (e.g. the Great Fire of London)

  • The lives of significant individuals (e.g. Mary Anning, Rosa Parks)

  • Local history and the history of London

  • The achievements of ancient civilisations (e.g. Ancient Egypt, Benin Kingdom)

  • British history from the Stone Age to the present day

  • The impact of empire, migration, and social change

• Lessons follow a coherent progression of knowledge and skills, enabling pupils to make connections across periods and contexts.

• Historical skills are taught explicitly, including source analysis, interpretation, chronology, comparison, and historical enquiry.

• Use of visits, artefacts, texts, timelines, role-play and storytelling makes learning vivid and memorable.

• Pupils study a range of historical figures from diverse backgrounds, helping them see themselves represented in history.

• High-quality enrichment and experiential learning includes:

  • Visits to museums, heritage sites and archives such as the Museum of London, the British Museum, and local Islington history venues.

  • Local fieldwork opportunities.

  • In-school history workshops, drama experiences, and opportunities to handle historical artefacts.

  • Events including Black History Month and Remembrance Day, 

• Integrated Topics: Combining History with other subjects to provide a multifaceted understanding of themes.

• Literary Connections: Selecting quality books, plays, and poems that deepen understanding of historical topics.

•  Encouraging students to write and speak like historians, fostering skills in research, analysis, debate, presentation and argumentation.

This approach ensures that students not only learn historical facts but also develop the ability to think critically about the past. 

Impact

The impact of our History curriculum is reflected in:

• Pupils gaining secure knowledge of key historical periods, events, and figures in line with the National Curriculum.

• Confident use of historical vocabulary and concepts such as cause, consequence, continuity and change.

• Children making meaningful comparisons across time and place, developing strong analytical and evaluative skills.

• Children critically evaluate sources, construct arguments, and support their conclusions with evidence.

• Informed Perspectives: Students understand the causes and consequences of historical events and their relevance today.

• Empathy and Understanding: Pupils appreciate diverse experiences and viewpoints from different historical contexts.

• Enthusiasm for history seen in thoughtful discussions, questioning, and engagement with historical sources.

• Cultural capital enhanced through rich experiences beyond the classroom and exposure to diverse perspectives.

• Pupils leaving primary school with a well-rounded historical understanding and preparation for more advanced historical study at secondary level.

Vision for History at Moreland

At Moreland, we want History to ignite children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world and help them to understand the diversity of human experience. History is important as it provides children with the opportunities to empathise with others, argue a point of view and reach their own conclusions - essential skills for life.  We aim for a high-quality history curriculum that has been carefully designed and sequenced to equip our children with a secure, coherent knowledge of British, local and world history. Curriculum content is knowledge and vocabulary rich and teaches children a sense of chronology, allowing children to develop their understanding of key historical concepts and themes as they move through school.

History teaching at Moreland stimulates the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. They learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make informed life choices today. The curriculum enables children to become knowledgeable historians who can articulate their understanding with confidence and who are equipped with the historical skills and knowledge ready for the secondary curriculum.

In our school, History makes a significant contribution to our global citizenship education. We recognise the important role that History plays in preparing our children with skills that they can use for life, raising their aspirations, understanding how to be a good and responsible citizen, understanding change and societal development and a context in which to understand themselves and others. By learning about the development of  democracy, how historical events have shaped society today, how significant individuals and groups of people have changed the way we live today and overcome injustice, how what has happened in the past influences the present and understanding how we can learn from the past, children develop a sense of identity, and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage.

We teach children to understand how:

• Events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by so doing, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem-solving.

We intend to inspire pupils to develop a broad historical and cultural awareness by:

• Providing opportunities for children to develop a chronological framework by investigating the past and how it influences the present.
• Encouraging children to interrogate evidence and form their own opinions.
• Enabling children to communicate their view points in a variety of ways using appropriate historical vocabulary.
• Exploring a range of sources of information.
• Fostering enjoyment, empathy and curiosity for finding out about the past.
• Aiming to teach a view of history that attempts to overcome bias and that is inclusive of and reflects our diverse histories.

Geography Curriculum Overview 

Intent

At Moreland Primary School, our Geography curriculum aims to:

• Develop pupils’ understanding of the world’s people, places, and environments, closely aligned to the EYFS and National Curriculum expectations for Key Stages 1 and 2.

• Foster curiosity about the world, encouraging students to explore diverse places, people, and environments.

• Develop an understanding of geographical processes, including how landscapes are formed and how human and environmental interactions shape our world.

• Develop a rich geographical vocabulary.

• Enable children to become globally aware citizens who can describe, compare and contrast human and physical geography in a range of contexts.

• Build secure knowledge of locational and place geography, human and physical features, weather and climate, map skills, and geographical processes.

• Encourage enquiry-based learning, observation, and fieldwork to explore their local area and the wider world.

• Foster curiosity about the world, encouraging students to explore diverse places, people, and environments.

• Develop an understanding of geographical processes, including how landscapes are formed and how human and environmental interactions shape our world.

• Promote sustainability, global responsibility, and environmental awareness in line with the school’s commitment to Global Citizenship and the Sustainable Development Goals by instilling values of respect, cooperation, and responsibility towards other cultures and the planet.

• Enrich cultural capital through educational visits, fieldwork experiences, and links to geography-related careers.

This approach builds on pupils' personal experiences to investigate places at various scales, from local to global, encouraging them to become inquisitive, open-minded, and responsible individuals.

Implementation

• Geography is taught through discrete, high-quality lessons that follow a carefully sequenced progression, ensuring full coverage of the National Curriculum, including:

  • Locational knowledge – naming continents, oceans, countries (including the UK), capital cities, and key global regions.

  • Place knowledge – comparing contrasting localities in the UK, Europe, and non-European countries.

  • Human and physical geography – understanding rivers, mountains, volcanoes, land use, settlements, trade, and climate zones.

  • Geographical skills and fieldwork – using maps, globes, atlases, aerial photographs, and digital mapping; collecting and analysing data through fieldwork.

• Pupils explore local, national, and global contexts through hands-on fieldwork, including exploring Islington’s urban geography and natural features.

• Use of Technology: Employing maps, visual images, and digital tools to analyse and present geographical information.

• Learning is deepened through the use of high-quality visual resources, real-world case studies, studying texts that deepen understanding of geographical topics  and cross-curricular links, especially with Science, English and Global Citizenship.

• Pupils engage with contemporary issues such as sustainability, climate change, migration, and global inequality.

• A focus on diversity and inclusion ensures children see a broad representation of places, cultures, and communities.

• Cultural Capital & Enrichment: Geography is enriched through a wide range of experiences, including:
  • Local fieldwork activities and field trips to rivers, woodland, farms, and contrasting urban/rural locations.
  • Working with geographers and environmental organisations.
  • Highlighting careers in geography through meeting and learning about a diverse range of geographers, including those working in geography careers today. 
  • Participating in whole-school events such as Earth Day, Eco Week, and geography-themed competitions.
  • Exploring geography in the context of global citizenship, linking to the Oxfam Global Citizenship Framework, British Values, and the Rights Respecting Schools Award.

Impact

The impact of our Geography curriculum is seen in:

• Pupils acquiring secure geographical knowledge and vocabulary aligned to the National Curriculum.

• Confident use of maps, globes, and fieldwork techniques to observe and record geographical information.

• Children understanding global interdependence and their roles as informed, responsible citizens.

• Critical Thinking: Pupils engage in questioning, investigation, and analysis of geographical issues affecting the world today

• Pupils making meaningful connections between local and global issues, such as climate action and sustainability.

• Increased cultural capital through a wide range of real-world experiences and interactions with professionals.

• Strong preparation for secondary geography and future studies in environmental sciences or geography-related careers.

Vision for Geography at Moreland

Through the teaching and learning of Geography at Moreland, children develop curiosity about and knowledge and understanding of different places, people and environments. We aim to inspire our children to develop a sense of wonder in the world and an interest in different places. The geography curriculum builds children’s understanding of where places are, how places and landscapes are formed, how people and their environment interact and how economies, societies and environments are interconnected.

We believe that it has never been more important for children to have a comprehensive global understanding and knowledge of the world and the people and cultures that inhabit it . We want our children to use the vibrancy of our local area and great city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and build care and compassion for other people and the planet. Geography at Moreland builds on pupils' own experiences to investigate places at all scales, from the personal to the global.

Our children will develop a secure understanding of the impact they and others can have on our planet. We want our children to be inquisitive about the world, open-minded and also responsible for the actions and choices they make. Geography at Moreland aims to inspire pupils to become global citizens by exploring their own place in the world, their values and their responsibilities to other people, to the environment and to the sustainability of the planet.

Geographical enquiry at Moreland encourages questioning, investigation and critical thinking about issues affecting the world and people's lives, now and in the future. Fieldwork is an essential element of this. Pupils learn to think spatially and use maps, visual images and new technologies, to obtain, present and analyse information.

The topics that the children study are outlined below (see class pages for a full curriculum map including trips and visits):

	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Nursery and Reception Cycle 1	Into the Woods		All About Me		In the Garden
Nursery and Reception Cycle 2	Food and Festivals		Imaginary Worlds		About Town
Year 1	Around the World	London Calling: From A to Z	Fossil Hunters	Seasons and Weather	Beside the Seaside	Local History - Our School Local Fieldwork
Year 2	Inspirational Women	Time Detectives – Great Fire of London	Kings, Queens and Castles	The Great British Bake Off	Land Ahoy: Pirates and Explorers	Local Fieldwork
Year 3	Nelson Mandela and Apartheid	The River Thames	Active Planet	80 Days Around the World	Stone Age to Iron Age	Local History - City Road Basin Local Fieldwork
Year 4	Windrush	People of London	Ancient Egypt	Ancient Egypt Mini topic- The Water Cycle	Ancient Greece	Local Fieldwork
Year 5	The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade	Roman London	Anglo Saxons, Scots and Vikings	Where We Live - The UK	Weather and Climate	Local Fieldwork The Earth's Natural Resources
Year 6	The Civil Rights Movement	Victorian London	Going Global	The USA	AD900 - The Benin Kingdom	Local Fieldwork The Amazon

Please see the document below that illustrates National Curriculum coverage for History and Geography in each unit. 

Primary Geography Quality Mark and Primary History Quality Mark

We are pleased to announce we have been awarded the Gold Primary Geography Quality Mark in September 2023 and the Gold Primary  History Quality Mark in March 2024.

^{Enrichment in History and Geography}

All of our Geography and History topics include opportunities for curriculum enrichment. These are planned into the sequence of learning and are a core element of the teaching of these subjects. We maximise the benefits of our favourable location in the heart of London, visiting many of the major museums and historic sites and working closely with The Museum of London as their "Champion School".  Teachers have also participated in helping shape educational sessions with a number of organisations, including the Museum of London, BBC BItesize, Hackney Museum, Wren 300, the London Metropolitan Archives and the Quentin Blake Gallery.  Our student History and Art ambassadors have attended previews of exhibitions at the London Mithraeum. 

Takeover Day 2019 - A sneak peek

Year 5 took over the Museum of London as part of Kids in Museums day. They gave talks, welcomed visitors , made announcements, explained artefacts and surveyed visitors.

History and Geography Enrichment Opportunities

These are just a few examples of the numerous trips and workshops that children participate in linked to History and Geography topics. There are also many opportunities for cross curricular learning.

Field Work Opportunities

Pupils school participate in field work activities in both Geography and History. During National Fieldwork week in June, every class plans and enquiry, carries out fieldwork in the local area and analyses and presents their findings. 

Gallery of Children’s Work

Year 2 made stop-animation films about The Great Fire of London with help from the Discovery team at 3. This brought together their learning in History, English, Art, DT and Computing in a final piece of work. 

 

Online Resources for Families and Children

• GeoGuessr

• National Geographic Kids

• Fact Monster

• World Geography Games

• Kid’s Crash Courses

• LGFL Geo

• Virtual Reality