History
History
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Winston Churchill.
Introduction
We believe that enquiry history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians.
We encourage pupils to develop an appreciation and understanding of the past, evaluating a range of primary and secondary sources. Our historians will also be able to explain clearly how these sources give us an insight about how people around the world used to live and how these interpretations may differ. Pupils will be taught to make links between these areas of learning, with the aim of developing engaged, motivated and curious learners that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links to the present day.
Intent
In order to become Historians, children will be developed in the following ways:
- An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past;
- Learning about the concept of chronology, which underpins children's developing sense of period, as well as key concepts such as change and causation.
- The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences;
- The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources;
- The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry;
- A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their learning;
- A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics;
- A developing sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
Cultural Capital
Children will learn about areas of significant historical interest within their local area. In addition, they will learn about current topical historical events such as Black History Month and changes to our current monarchy.
They will also experience the following:
- Possible trips and visits within the local area including trips to observe the changes of the coast, Winter Gardens Museum and Beamish Museum.
- Workshops with specialist historians.
- Opportunities to explore artefacts from a specific period of history.
- Learning about and celebrating historical events such as Bonfire Night and Remembrance Day
- Learning about local history such as the coal mining and the impact it had on the North East.
Implementation
History is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each topic to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school.
By the end of year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Maya.
The local area and the wider region of the North East is also utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.
Planning is informed by and aligned with the National Curriculum. Consideration is given to how greater depth will be taught, learnt and demonstrated within each lesson, as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.
As part of the curriculum planning process, teachers need to consider the following:
- All learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge;
- Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts;
- A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth;
- Inquiry based approach for children to piece together new knowledge and skills:
- Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a philosophical/open manner.
Impact
Our History Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Children articulating their love of history both locally, nationally and internationally;
- A celebration of learning which demonstrates progression across the school;
- Outcomes in topic books: evidence of a broad and balanced history curriculum that demonstrates the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge.
- Children discuss the skills of a historian prior to learning and review their successes in this area at the end of every session.
- Emphasis is placed on analytical thinking and questioning which helps pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and are curious to know more about the past.
- Through this study, pupils learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, discuss evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
EYFS
Early years explore historical themes and content through the Understanding of the World strand of the EYFS curriculum. This involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places and time. They are assessed according to the Development Matters Attainment targets.
We do this through activities such as through activities such as:
- Stories
- Continuous provision to investigate the world around them
- Role play
- Circle time
- Vocabulary (‘new’ and ‘old’) in relation to their own lives.
Photos
Curriculum Plans & Policies
SEND
All pupils are entitled to access the history curriculum at a level appropriate to their needs. To ensure inclusion, teachers use a range of strategies. Independent tasks, as well as teaching, are also well-adapted to ensure full accessibility, as well as to provide appropriate challenge to different groups of learners. Opportunities for enrichment are also fully utilised, to ensure a fully inclusive and engaging history curriculum and this is supported through a number of links with places of historical interest in the immediate and wider locality.
Additional Web Links
The National Archives
BBC History
History through Books