History

Intent: The History curriculum at Stanford School is unique. It is broad and balanced with a breadth of engaging opportunities. It is carefully planned and sequenced with key skills, concepts and knowledge that build on previous learning. Pupils revisit their learning and use and apply their knowledge fluently.

Implementation: The History curriculum is purposeful and relevant to the pupils. The knowledge and skills pupils acquire, build on their previous learning, allowing them to transfer key skills, knowledge and concepts to their long-term memories.

Impact: We are proud of the achievements of our pupils in History. Our pupils fluently apply their skills and knowledge within History and make connections to their existing knowledge and to other curriculum areas.

At Stanford School we encourage pupils to be curious about the past and the way it affects our lives today. We aim to give our pupils a greater understanding of the world they live in and its history, to further develop their understanding of values and attitudes. We endeavour to deepen our pupil’s knowledge and understanding of people in other societies, religions, and cultures and countries, as well as their own. We teach key skills progressively from Foundation to Y6 so that the pupils are able to find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions.

Pupils learn to understand and use specific historical vocabulary called Tier 3 words. (Tier 3 words are subject-specific words that are used within a particular subject. This is the language of scientists, mathematicians, literary critics etc.) For historians, Tier 3 words could be words such as ‘legacy’, ‘heritage’ etc. Please see our progression of Tier 3 words for more examples.

The pupil’s knowledge is enhanced by many visitors, school trips to places of historical interest as a well as drama workshops, themed historical days, and close links with the local history group. We are also very proud of our heritage at Stanford School and enjoy a special celebration each year on Founder’s Day.

The History of Communication: Telephones

The Year 2 children have been finding out about the history of the telephone.

They enjoyed a very interesting and informative talk from Mrs. Griffith who told them all about her time working at the telephone exchange in Grimsby. She explained how older phones worked and showed them pictures of the switchboard and explained what an operator or telephonist did when answering and connecting calls.
In the classroom, the children had fun exploring the old phones in their phone museum and also making string telephones to talk to their friends.

H- Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor and he also liked teaching deaf people.
C- Alexander Graham Bell if famous for inventing the world’s first telephone.
J- Mrs. Griffith told us about phones with a dial and she had to use a pen with a round end to move it round to dial a number.
E- Queen Elizabeth was the first person who could make a phone call to someone else without having to call the operator first.
J- Mrs. Griffith showed us how to say telephone numbers clearly over the phone.

Chocolate Workshop

Year 4 had a special visitor this week who taught us lots about chocolate. We learned about its development throughout history and links to the Ancient Maya civilisation (that we have been learning about). We also learned about the conditions for growing cocoa pods within tropical rainforests and where the ingredients for chocolate are harvested. After this, we were taught some of the skills of what it takes to be a chocolate taster, with blind aroma tests, followed by tasting a variety of chocolates and identifying what ingredients they might include.

Stonehenge

We love celebrating the fantastic home learning that is produced in Pumpkin class. This fantastic piece of home learning took inspiration from us looking at Stonehenge in our recent History lesson.

Being Historians

Year 1s have been Historians this week. They have been finding out about Amelia Earhart and what she has done. Firstly, the children looked at the questions on the Learning Wall and the photos of two women. They used talk partners and shared their thoughts:

Child A: I think they are very old or not alive any more because the pictures are black and white.
Child B: I think they could have been actresses because they look good.
Child C: They look happy in the photos.
Child D: Maybe they are in the same family.

We then watched an interactive version of Amelia’s story and the children wrote what they had found out. Look at some of our work.

Pumpkin Hook Day!

We had a fantastic hook day in Year 3. We went in our nature area and role played for our English. We asked ourselves what would it have felt like to be in a cave? What senses would we have used? What would we have done? We then used what we role played to write a piece of descriptive writing using exciting vocabulary and expanded noun phrases. 

Mummification

In History this week we have looked at mummification and the process it entails. We learnt that when people were mummified to reduce the water in the body and to act as a preservative, they used Natron. We investigated using different kinds of salt on different fruits and vegetables to see which one would be a modern-day substitute for Natron. We scooped the insides of the fruit and veg out, weighed it and covered in different salts. Next week we will weigh the fruit and veg out again to see which salt has absorbed the most amount of water.

Remembrance Day

This afternoon Mr Smith from the British Legion came to talk to us all about Remembrance Day. We had a chance to ask questions about Remembrance Day and Mr Smith explained what happens, he also read us a poem called 'The inquisitive mind of a child.' A big thank you to Mr Smith for coming to visit us, and sharing his knowledge with us.

Celebrating our Sisters

Year 5 have been 'celebrating our sisters' for Black History Month! We used a range of secondary sources to research information about black women and their 'first' achievements, such as the first black policewoman, author and MP. We had some great group discussions as to why it is so important to celebrate these achievements.

Black History Month

The children Year 2 have been finding out all about the life of American artist, Alma Thomas. They were very shocked to learn that during her life she had been treated very unfairly because of the colour of her skin. The children learnt the meanings of the words; ‘racism’ and ‘discrimination'. The children enjoyed exploring her art work and found her colourful pictures inspiring, and so they decided to create some of their own.

Ancient Greece Hook Day!

Barley class had a fantastic Hook day learning all about different aspects of Ancient Greece! We started our day by researching Greek God and Goddesses, looking at what power they held and why they were so important. We then focused on the Greek myth, Theseus and the Minotaur, discovering the mythical creature who lived in a labyrinth. Our interest on labyrinths enabled us to use our shape, space and measures maths skills to design our own, complex labyrinth designs- This was tricky but we persevered and succeeded- just like Theseus did!

In the afternoon we continued our journey through Greek culture and lifestyle but tasting Greek food, designing a Greek pot using Greek designs and also the artefacts and finished our day with a mini Greek Olympics!

Egyptian Hook Day!

Today in Pumpkin class we have had our hook day. We have learnt lots about Egyptians and how they used to live, we even had a virtual tour of the British Museum around the Egyptian exhibition. Then we learnt all about papyrus paper and how it was used, then we had a go at making our own! 

The Great Fire of London

Today in Year 1 we have been reenacting the Great Fire of London. We have been reading a book to support our learning and moved onto chapter 2. We had sound effects of a real fire in the background as we were acting out different scenes. This gave us inspiration to write a speech bubble for one of the characters from the book.

Year 2 Historical Enquiry

The children produced wonderful art work and wrote interesting facts about Founder’s Day and the Stanford family. They enjoyed looking at a wide range of sources, including old photographs and Sarah Stanford’s deed of 1721. Well done everyone

Eden Camp

Juniper Class have had an excellent time at Eden Camp! We looking in all of the huts and took part in all of the interactive parts on offer, from playing games to looking at the military vehicles. Some of us were lucky enough to see one of the tanks on the move around the carpark! There were dark, loud huts showing us what it was really like to be in the Blitz and the aftermath of bombings. We read lots of information and went on a fact-finding mission throughout the day. It was a really lovely day!

  1. It was really nice and I learnt a lot from it even if the mannequins were scary! 
  2. I really enjoyed the trip, my favourite part was the U-boat hut because it was really interesting to see what life would have been like on the boats. 
  3. I enjoyed playing some of the old games children would play during World War 2, I also liked the rise of Hitler hut as it had lots of information within it. 
  4. I enjoyed the blackout hut even though we couldn't see if gave me a really good idea of what the blackout would have been like to experience.

The Stanford Legacy

As part of their historical enquiry work about Founder’s Day this year, Pumpkin Class visited the wonderful Stanford exhibition at the Stanford Centre. They were able to read information about Sarah and Philip Stanford, The Stanford Trust and the origins of the Stanford Coat of Arms.
Many thanks to Mrs. Brumfield for her interesting and informative talk.

H- The Stanford badge has diamond shapes on it called mascles.
N- The moon shape on the badge means second son.
H- I noticed the top of the badge is a different shape to our badges on our jumpers.
M- The sword and the helmet made me think that William Stanford had been a knight.
A - Henry VIII gave Philip Stanford’s ancestor, William Staunford the badge in 1543.
L- I liked the church picture. I found the old penny!
H- If you come here, you can read about Sarah Stanford’s deed and what she wanted The Trust to do with her money. She wanted to help poor people, give children a school and she wanted boys and girls to learn maths.

Founders Day

Foundation Stage

Foundation stage really enjoyed learning about their first Founder's Day at Stanford School. We looked at lots of photographs - some that Mrs Brumfield and Mrs Brady had found, as well as some old class photos from Mrs Groves. We found it really interesting to see how much the school and the people had changed. We learned most of the words to the school song and made some birthday cards for the school as well. One of the most fun activities though was making a huge birthday cake, which you can see in our photos!

KS1 and Foundation Stage

The KS1 and Foundation Stage children had a special assembly led by Mrs. Brumfield to mark Founder's Day- The School's Birthday.

Mrs. Brumfield gave a very interesting and exciting talk. She is very knowledgeable about the school's history with many family connections to the school and is also a member of The Stanford Trust. The children were very excited to see all the different artefacts and old photos, as well as finding out about the rich heritage of our school.

J- I spotted Mrs. Brumfield when she was a little girl in an old photo. Her hair was very long then.

L- The school is 293 years old today.

A- Founder's Day was also called Penny Day because all the children got money. They used to get an old penny in the olden days.

G- Mrs. Brumfield's Dad went to the old Stanford School and at playtime he had to drink water out of a bucket!

A- Mrs. Brumfield's Grandad had to write with chalk on a slate.

H- I loved it when Mrs. Brumfield took her coat off and showed us her son's old school uniform. I noticed the blue on the badge was a lighter blue than mine.

S- Sarah Stanford left £40 to build a school for the children because they couldn't read or write.

R- The old school got too small, so it is now someone's home which is called Daisy Cottage.

T- Sarah Stanford gives us money every year on Founder's Day. The Stanford Trust are the people who look after her money. We all got 50p.

T- I enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to the school.

J- Mrs. Brady played The School Song on the piano and we all sang it. It was a really happy day.

Willow Class

In computing this week, we researched our School History in pairs. We collected our information using mind maps. We had a special assembly at the end of the day where we celebrated Sarah Stanford's Legacy.

In addition, we explored extracts from the School Log books looking at the Victorian period. We found it fascinating that these sources of evidence are about our actual school.

Year 6 Founders' Day Service 2023

Year 6 celebrated Founders’ day with a wonderful service at St Margaret’s Church! Pupils reflected on their time at Stanford and presented our Stanford identity: creativity, community, care, curriculum and challenge! Lead by our Head pupils and Rev Chris, they performed these pieces, along with the wonderful Brighter days song to Governors, community members and the Stanford Trust! Well done year 6- a wonderful celebration!

The Victorian Workhouse - A Prison for the Poor?

In English we are reading "Street Child" and learnt the main character, Jim, ended up living at the Workhouse. In history we explored a range of sources of evidence to learn what it was like in the workhouse. We used this history knowledge to write a diary as if we were in the workshouse.

High Tea for the King!

As part of our celebrations, we enjoyed a high tea with scones, in the sunshine, with the whole school! We finished the day singing our national anthem and each pupil received a commemorative bookmark to mark this special event in history! A great day was had by all!

The Pumpkin’s Celebrate the Kings Coronation!

Pumpkin Class enjoyed a lovely day learning all about King Charles and what will happen at his Coronation. They sang songs, made flags and ate yummy scones after their colourful parade on the school field. They used their research skills to find out interesting facts about; King Charles, his family, his regalia and the Coronation ceremony.

E- I found out that King Charles was married twice.

A- I learnt that King Charles has five names.

R- It has been interesting to learn about his family and look at a family tree.

R- I hadn’t realised that his wife will get a crown too at the Coronation.

R- It is interesting that he will wear two crowns. One is called the St. Edward’s Crown and the other one is called The Imperial Crown.

G- I found out about his regalia. The crown jewels are his crown, the orb and the sceptre.

Year 3 - Romans on the Rampage

Once again you have outdone yourselves with the costumes the children were wearing. They looked amazing.

The children had lots of fun taking part in Roman based activities. They used their creative skills to make laurel wreaths which the Romans are famous for wearing. The children also learnt about mosaics which the Romans loved. They were really engrossed in creating their mosaics of Roman ladies, citizens and soldiers. For a bit of fun the children learnt how to play Rota which is a Roman strategy game similar to ‘noughts and crosses’, then it was back to the grindstone for a bit of drill practise to prepare them for going into battle. This has been a very busy week for the children but they loved it!

Fishing Heritage Centre

Juniper class visited the fishing heritage centre, we had a look at making rope and life being a fisherman. We really enjoyed looking at the Ross Tiger and asked lots of insightful questions! We really enjoyed the experience of visiting.

1: I really enjoyed making the rope!

2: I loved asking lots of questions and finding out more about how fisherman

Martin Luther King Day

Year 6 pupils focused on the famous speech made by Martin Luther King, ‘I have a dream’ from 1963. They the speech and then created their own based on their ideal world and place. Some fantastic, thought-provoking dreams!

Year 3 Hook Day - Photo Call

The children really enjoyed dressing up for our Prehistoric hook day. We used our amazing immersive welcome display to copy the picture on the cover of 'Stone Age Boy' which we are studying in English. The children look amazing!!

Year 3 - The organisation of the Egyptian Society - being a historian

To understand how Egyptian life was organised and the roles of different people at that time the children took part in a role play. They had such fun as you can probably tell from the clip!

Year 3 - being a designer

The children have learnt about the jewellery that Egyptians wore. Using this information they designed their own necklaces and created them. Aren't they great?

We Are Historians!
Why should we remember Walter Tull?

Pumpkin Class have been busy researching the life of a man called Walter Tull. They used a range of primary and secondary sources to find out interesting facts. This work linked very well to Black History Month and Remembrance.

E- We saw his birth certificate and also his family tree. I am interested in family trees and I made my own for home learning!
G- Walter had a sad start in life, as both his parents died before he was 9.
F- Walter ended up in a children’s home.
H- Walter didn’t give up; he became very good at playing football. He was so good that he ended up playing football for Spurs.
M- I liked looking at all the old photos of Walter. Sometimes he was dressed as a footballer and sometimes he was in his soldier’s uniform. The pictures were old and in black, brown and white.
A- When Walter was playing football people shouted nasty things at him because of the colour of his skin. I was shocked to hear about this.
R- When the First World War started Walter was very brave and he volunteered to join the army.
H- He worked hard as a soldier and he became the first black British Officer.
O- It was very sad in the end because Walter died during the Battle of the Somme in France and on Poppy Day we should think about him.
J- Walter was a hero because he didn’t give up. He overcame prejudice and racism. We will remember him.

Remembrance

Lest We Forget

To mark Remembrance Day we had a special whole school assembly led by Mrs. Brady.

H- Mrs. Brady told us a true story about her Great Uncle who died in WWI. She explained that on Poppy Day she likes to remember him. We saw his army photo, his gravestone in France and the cenotaph in his village where people still place poppies.

O- Year 2 children read out lots of information to tell us why we have Poppy Day and what happens during Remembrance. They showed us their big poppy wreath that they had made.

V- Children from lots of other classes showed us beautiful poppy art work.

F- Year 6 children had written very thought-provoking poems and everyone listened carefully as they were read out. N- Mrs. Brady reminded us of the 11 o'clock silence which we all did in class. She told us about the leaves on poppies, that they should point to 11.

L- The assembly ended with a short video clip of information for us to watch and a clip of Remembrance Sunday. We saw soldiers marching to classical music. (Nimrod by Elgar.)

We Will Remember Them

Pumpkin Class marked Remembrance Day by making a poppy wreath, sharing their knowledge of Remembrance in assembly and completing a reading comprehension task. At 11 o'clock they were very respectful during the two minutes silence.

Laceby Royal British Legion

Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Hull from Laceby Royal British Legion led a very informative assembly to launch this year’s Poppy Appeal.

“We found out why it is important to remember.”
“Soldiers gave their lives in wars for us, this is how we can remember them and say thank you.”
“In Flanders Fields, the poppies began to grow after WW:, this is why it is the symbol for Remembrance.”
“The money we spend on poppies, slap bands and key rings all goes to help ex-servicemen and woman.”

Y3 - History - Death on the ........Humber

We were shocked to find that there had been a death in the classroom!!!

Cleopatra was found on the floor surrounded by asps. Seeing as she was the last Egyptian queen we only thought it was important to give her a proper Egyptian burial and mummify her so her body would be preserved until her soul reached the afterlife.

Black History Month

The children in Pumpkin Class have been finding out all about the life of American artist Alma Thomas. They discovered that during her life she had been treated very unfairly because of the colour of her skin. The children enjoyed exploring her art work and found her colourful pictures inspiring and so they decided to create some of their own.

Viking Day

We had the pleasure of having some Vikings in school! They showed us how Vikings live and all sorts of facts and information about them. We then staged what it would be like to be on a long boat and we re-enacted what it would be like to loot other places. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the Vikings visiting!

Viking Visit

As part of The Grim Falfest we had an exciting visit from some Vikings!

They told us the local legend of Grim and Havelok in a very interesting whole school assembly.

It was great to welcome visitors to our school and learn about historical events and legends with such a strong local significance.

R- It was good to find out how Grimsby got it’s name.

H- Grim saved Havelok when he was a baby.

T- Havelok went to work at Lincoln Castle when he was a man.

R- Havelok one day became the King of Denmark.

S- I want to see the Vikings in their boat at the weekend.

Paying our Respects

Mrs Hackfath, Mrs Smith and our Head Pupils visited St Margaret’s Church this morning to pay their respect to Queen Elizabeth II. Head pupils laid flowers as well as all signing the book of condolence for Her Majesty. A very special morning.

👑 Thank you for 70 years of loyal service 👑

Year 3 - Being an artist

The children enjoyed researching about the Egyptians. We looked at examples of Egyptian necklaces and found out that most were made from gold or breads, they had bright colours and repeating patterns, The children designed their own necklaces using these features out of paper plates. In addition to this we tried to make a replica of papyrus. The Egyptians were the first to make paper out of papyrus. They tore the papyrus into strips and laid the strips in layers horizontally and vertically. The sheets were hit to make the pieces stick together and then they were left to dry. We used brown paper which we tore into strips, dipped in glue and laid out in layers. Our method was much easier and equally effective. We can't wait to show you the finished products when they are dry!

Egyptian Hook Day

The children had lots of fun dressing up as Egyptians, mummies & explorers. Well done parents for the effort you went to with the costumes. (Keep you togas safe as you will need them in the summer term for our Roman theme)

Year 3 – The Collection

Free time at the museum

After lunch the children were able to explore the exhibits in the museum in small groups. The children were able to see artefacts from different periods of history from the Stone Age onwards. They were fascinated by them, especially items from the Romans.

Being a Roman Soldier

We went into the museum and a lady showed us some the different pieces of clothing and armour. She told us the Latin names for the different items and why the soldiers had to use these . She then told us that the soldiers trained for 2 years until they pledged themselves to serving the Emperor in the army. Men served for 20 years and. if they survived that long, they could then retire. We were allowed to try on some pieces of the clothing which were really heavy! The poor soldiers had to march for miles carrying all of their equipment so they ended up being really strong. After we tried on the pieces of armour we were taught how to march, fight and form a defensive formation called Testudo……..we didn’t know it but we were going to be attacked……. by the adults!!!! This was so much fun and most importantly we learnt so much about the Romans.

Being an archaeologist

Today was an exciting day for Poppy Class, we went to The Collection to learn about history, archaeology and the Romans. This was an amazing experience as the children were able to see and handle primary resources in the form of artefacts.

Our task was to be commercial archaeologists. These are asked to inspect a site before building takes place to ensure that there are no historical finds on the site.

First we put on Hi-Viz Jackets then we went off to investigate our site. We carefully looked for historical finds, when we found them we had to mark the spot and put our finds in bags to keep them safe. Then we investigated them closely, measured them, took notes and drew a sketch of the artefact. Some of the finds were quite unusual so we had to research what they were. After this we had to make a display of our artefacts, then be tour guides and talk about the items.

This was a lot of fun and the children found it amazing that they were holding a part of history in their hands.