Our History Curriculum

Intent:

We believe that history fires pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. It also helps children to understand the present and predict future events by studying similar past events and looking at common patterns in historical events. We aim to:

• Seek to equip our children with key historical skills and knowledge that will prepare them for the next stage in their learning and provide them with the necessary foundations to be successful in adult life.
• Build a history curriculum which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills so that all pupils know more and remember more.
• Enable every pupil to view themselves as historians.
• Use high-quality questioning to develop critical thinkers.
• Deliver all the requirements of the national curriculum in relation to history.
• Ensure all history lessons include opportunities to develop historical vocabulary.
• Make pupils aware of and apply history transferable skills required when linked to other subjects, as well as other aspects of their life.
• Help children to understand and appreciate the study of history, historical events and how past events have shaped the present day.
• Help pupils develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people.
• Help children see the diversity of human experience and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society.  

Implementation:

As part of the planning process, teachers plan the following:

• We implement our approach through high quality teaching delivering appropriately challenging work for all individuals.
• Every class from Year 1 to Y6 follows the Rising Stars scheme of learning which is based on the National Curriculum. Lessons are personalised to address the individual needs and requirements for a class but coverage is maintained.
• In the Early Years the children are encouraged to first think about history by talking about the lives of people around them and their roles in society. They are encouraged to know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class. Children in the EYFS setting are helped to understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling. This is the first step in becoming a confident historian.
• Lessons provide children with opportunities to investigate and build historical knowledge from their local area to the wider world. This includes key historical figures and events that have shaped the modern world, knowledge, understanding and historical and research techniques.
• Children from Year 1 through to Year 6 are taught key vocabulary which is embedded and discussed in lessons.
• Children attend trips relevant to the historical topics being studied.

Impact:

• Children will make at least good progress in history from their last point of statutory assessment and from their starting point in Reception.
• Children will use their history knowledge and skills, in all curriculum areas, to enable them to know more, remember more and understand more.
• Children will retain knowledge that is pertinent to applying history with a real life context.
• All children view themselves as historians and use and apply these skills across the curriculum.
• Children will have a knowledge and understanding of: 
  • A sense of time – with a coherent, chronological understanding  
  • Cause and consequence  
  • Continuity and change  
  • Historical interpretation  
  • Historical context  
  • Appreciating diversity including the nature of the British Isles.
• Children will be able to:  
  • Effectively use a range of artefacts and sources, analyse nature, origin, purpose, utility, accuracy and reliability – how do we know this?  
  • Consider causation and significance of key events 
  •  Utilise opportunities outside the classroom including home learning to enrich experience 
  •  Learn without limits, making cross-curricular links to secure application and understanding
• The history curriculum will Ensure continuity and progression across key stages, recognising history as an enquiry with a focus on skills and deepening knowledge and understanding, supported by robust assessment.