History

We believe that our children deserve a broad and ambitious history curriculum, rich in knowledge and skills. The study of history ignites children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, culture and local community have developed over time, children understand how the past influences the present. History enables children to develop a context for their growing sense of identity and a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events, places and people. What they learn through history can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. We seek to create a life-long love of the subject through building a deepening knowledge of the past, a respect for people and an appreciation of how historians make sense of the past. Our curriculum is designed to provide our children with the subject specific language they need to describe, question and discuss historical events and their impact on the world. The curriculum is sequenced to ensure that pupils learn within a coherent chronological framework. Key concepts and themes such as civilisation, society, invasion and government are interwoven. The curriculum offer is suitably challenging and carefully adapted to ensure that all pupils can secure the core knowledge and skills required for future learning.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of history through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World.’ This aspect is about how children find out about past and present events in their own lives, their families and other people they know. Children’s understanding of the past is predominantly developed through settings, characters and events encountered in the books read in class and through shared stories.

The implementation of the United Curriculum for History reflects the broader teaching and learning principles, found below.

For History in particular:

•Content is always carefully situated within existing schemas. Every unit always begins with the chronological and geographical contexts, so that pupils can situate new knowledge in their broader understanding of people and places in the past.

•Vertical concepts are used within lessons to connect learning about one civilisation to another. For example, when learning about Ancient Maya step-pyramids, pupils will review the stone structures of Stonehenge, Egyptian pyramids and Greek temples.

•Opportunities for extended, scholarly writing appear throughout the curriculum. These have a clear purpose and audience and, crucially, allow pupils to write as a historian. For example, after considering the subjective nature of historical significance, pupils write to the head teacher to explain why they think it is important for all subsequent Year 4 classes to learn about the Early Islamic Civilisation.

Teaching and Learning principles of the United Learning history curriculum: 

The United Curriculum for History provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

•Coherent and chronological substantive knowledge of the history of Britain and the wider world: selected to build pupils’ understanding of three vertical concepts. These vertical concepts provide both a concrete lens through which to study and contextualise history, as well as use small steps to help pupils gain a deep understanding of complex, abstract ideas:

•Quest for knowledge

How do people understand the world around them? What is believed; what is known; what scientific and technological developments are made at the time? How is knowledge stored and shared? What shapes people’s views about the world?

•Power, empire and democracy

Who holds power, and what does this mean for different people in the civilisations? How is power wielded and legitimised? How are people’s rights different in different historical contexts?

•Community and family

What is life like for different people – men, women and children – in different societies? How are these societies structured? How are family and community roles and relationships different in different historical contexts?

•Opportunities for all pupils to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, but also to be taken beyond their own experiences.

The history curriculum teaches pupils about civilisations from across the world, and always incorporates the experiences – positive and negative – of ethnic minorities in the history of Britain. •Grounding in core disciplinary and procedural knowledge, and the ability to approach challenging, historically-valid questions, giving pupils the ability for pupils to learn how to think, read and write like an historian. •An excitement for history, which inspires a curiosity to learn more about the past.

Impact
​By the time the children leave our school they should have developed the following:
 
A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
The ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.

Formative Assessment is prioritised to judge impact and this is done in the following ways: 

The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress. Formative assessment is prioritised and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum.

In general, this is done through:

•Questioning in lessons. Teachers check understanding so they can fill gaps and address misconceptions as required.

•Pupil conferencing with books. Subject leads and SLT talk to pupils about what they have learnt – both substantive and disciplinary knowledge – and how this connects to the vertical concepts that they have been developing in previous years and other subjects.

•Post-learning quizzes at the end of each unit. These give teachers an understanding of the knowledge that pupils can recall at the end of the unit, and can be used to identify any remaining gaps to be filled. These are generally simple recall questions, such as key features of belief systems in prehistoric Britain, or some of the reasons why people, places and events may be seen as significant.

•Pre-learning quizzes at the start of each unit. These assess pupils’ understanding of the prior knowledge that is required to access the new content in the unit. These are used to identify gaps to be filled prior to teaching the new unit.