Year 6 Rationale

Autumn 1

To support British Values, the Year 6 pupils will discover when and why World War II began and find out about the key individuals and countries involved. They will learn all about evacuation; what it was like to live with food rationing and explore the contribution made by women to the war effort. Furthermore, they will investigate events that were key turning points in the war, such as the Battle of Britain and the German invasion of the USSR. Studying World War II will help children to develop their investigation and evaluation skills; learn to organise information chronologically and understand how past events have helped to shape the world we know today.

Spring 2

In the Spring term, Year 6 pupils develop their knowledge of the Anglo Saxons, in addition to being introduced to the Vikings and the Normans. They know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day, with a particular focus from 850AD to 1066AD. They gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, focusing on military, political and social history, begin to recognise and describe the nature and extent of diversity, change and continuity and suggest relationships between causes, eg. Understanding how different people settled. Pupils produce detailed, structured work, select and deploy information and make appropriate use of historical terminology and contrasting evidence. They use sources as a basis for research, from which they begin to use as evidence to test hypotheses and begin to recognise why some events, people and changes might be judged as more historically significant than others.

Summer 1

In the summer term, pupils sequence events and periods through the use of appropriate terms relating to the passing of time, analyse connections, trends and contrasts over time and produce structured work that makes connections, draws contrasts and analyses trends between the different periods. Pupils are immersed into the theme of life and leisure from the period of the Victorian era to the present day.