Curriculum - History
History Intent
At St Stephen’s CE Primary, we believe that good history lessons should inspire children to have a curiosity about the past and to think and act as historians. By linking learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past, as well as that of the wider world, and how the past has influenced us today. We would like children to learn about local history that is relevant to them. We want children to enjoy and love learning about History by gaining knowledge and skills not just within the classroom but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits. We develop children with the following key features to help them become historians:-
Knowledge – good knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past. Develop the concept of chronology, which underpins children’s developing sense of period. Introduce them to a wide range of historical vocabulary.
Enquiry – The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry;
They will look at 4 key areas –
Continuity and change – Are things always changing? Is change a good thing? What changed as a result?
Cause and effect – Why did it happen? What was the result of it happening? Can anything happen without consequence?
Historical Significance – Who decides who or what to remember from the past? Why do we remember people we never knew?
Historical evidence – How do we know about the past? Can I use a particular source to make a (cautious) claim?
History Implementation
At St. Stephen’s C.E. Primary, the teaching, learning and sequencing of the History curriculum is as follows:
- A blocked curriculum approach has been implemented to ensure coverage of knowledge and progression in skills and concepts. The blocked approach ensures depth in their learning.
- We have identified the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each key stage across the school. There are three themes for each key stage running through-
KS1 – Locality. Significance and Transport
KS2 – The development of technology, The story of arrivals and the emergence of civilisations.
The themes are stories that will run through to enable long term memory and retrieval.
- In EYFS and KS1, children focus on the world around them and their living memory of History before moving to events that go beyond living history. This will ensure a firm foundation for KS2 History.
- In KS2, the History curriculum is planned in chronological order to allow children to build an image of History over time and to use their knowledge of previous periods, events and people to better understand current learning.
- Lessons develop long-term memory by allowing for repetition of learning within the year and across years. Flashbacks are being developed to be used in every lesson to enable children to reflect on what has been taught in a previous lesson and in a previous year group linked to our themes/story..
- The use of Knowledge Organisers support teachers in sequencing learning, and actively used by children as an aide-memoire during lessons This will help to show expectations at the end of a topic and will support retention and recall.
- Vocabulary is taught within the unit and reinforced throughout the year. A glossary of vocabulary/knowledge organiser will go in their history file.
- Teachers plan trips and visits from experts who will enhance the learning experience.
The curriculum is led and overseen by the History lead. The History lead will ensure a regular programme of monitoring and evaluation, and the celebration of good practice informs our commitment to improving teaching and learning History at St Stephen’s CE Primary School.
History Impact
By the end of KS2, our children will know more, understand more and remember more about History and the past. They will be motivated and inspired to continue their learning as they progress to KS3. At St. Stephen’s C. E. Primary, our aim is for our History curriculum to develop independent thinkers, who are excited and inspired by the past and understand that their decisions and actions play a part in shaping the future. By the end of KS2, we want our children to be able to use a wide range of historical sources to ask and answer questions about the past and be able to understand the limitations of different types of resources so that our learners are prepared for the challenges of Key Stage 3.
Our curriculum enables children to develop a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They will have had opportunities to draw comparisons with the achievements of the earliest civilizations, study the non-European societies of Mayan civilization, Ancient Egypt and the influence of Ancient Greece on the wider world. Children will have an understanding and perspective about our locality and some of the challenges and achievements that have shaped the local area in which we live.
We measure the impact of our History curriculum through monitoring work, listening to the children’s attitudes about history through pupil voice, learning walks, work scrutiny and data analysis.
