Intent
At Wolsingham Primary School, we aim for a high quality history curriculum which should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our teaching equips pupils with knowledge about the history of Britain and how it has influenced and been influenced by the wider world; know and understand about significant aspects of the history of the wider world like ancient civilisations and empires; changes in living memory and beyond living memory developing their understanding of chronology; learn about the lives of significant events and people of the past – particularly those of local relevance where possible; understand the methods of historical enquiry and be able to ask and answer questions. We want children to enjoy and love learning about history by gaining knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits. We believe that History is a cumulative not hierarchal subject, therefore our aim for progression is that by the end of Key Stage 2, our children are more sophisticated in their understanding and are able to argue their historical interpretations.
The History curriculum develops the priorities for pupils at Wolsingham Primary School in the following ways:
Basic skills – The History curriculum allows plenty of opportunities for children to develop their reading skills with the use of primary and secondary sources, allowing children to develop their understanding of the past through independent reading. Writing skills are developed in written explanations and answering of questions linked to historical concepts. Finally, opportunities to use Mathematical skills are encouraged in terms of developing understanding of the chronology of dates.
Resilience and Perseverance – Children are encouraged to build up their understanding about history, using their own lines of enquiry as they progress through school. It develops the key skills of perseverance, understanding what needs to be done to be able to reach their own conclusions and ensuring that they follow that line of enquiry to the end.
Social Awareness – One of the major aspects of history is to understand the roots of where we have come from as a nation. This helps build up social awareness of how people lived and still do live as well as developing an understanding of culture and other differences in society (e.g. role of wealth, gender, immigration etc).
Knowledge – Children are expected to develop their understanding and knowledge through the use of carefully scaffolded questions and sources of information which, by Upper Key Stage 2, allows children to then be able to develop their own lines of enquiry to find an answer to a problem. This is not only an important transferrable skill to other subjects but can be an important life skill that builds up their own independence and promotes a natural curiosity of the world.
Implementation
Using the National Curriculum and with support of local authority specialists, our curriculum has been developed and shaped based on our own pupils and the priority areas for our school as outlined above. History is implemented as below:
- A one hour teaching slot dedicated to the History curriculum each week during alternate half terms (alternating with Geography).
- The sequence of learning is carefully built up on:
- KS1 units progress from historical events directly related to the self (continuing from EYFS provision initially), to broader topics to help develop their understanding of history in a wider context.
- KS2 units are taught in chronological order to allow a deeper understanding of change and continuity.
- Year 6 will be introduced to investigative enquiries that uses their learning from the previous years.
- Vocabulary is progressively taught across the school.
- All units have an overarching enquiry question and then each lesson has its own question to feed into that overarching theme.
- At the start of each unit, and across the unit where relevant, children will be encouraged to use their retrieval skills from their learning from different year groups to make inferences and interpretations about changes in time.
- The use of artefacts, pictures, photographs, film clips, key vocabulary and historical evidence will be used as a starting point for discussions.
- Having studied historical evidence, pupils are encouraged to react to History and use this knowledge to discuss, present, debate, re-enact and write from different historical perspectives.
- To make historic learning more memorable, carefully planned trips, educational visitors and workshops, both virtual and live will be used in our teaching.
- Assessment will be based on ongoing formative assessment throughout the unit and the ability of children to answer the overarching question linked to their unit.
Impact
As children progress through the History curriculum at Wolsingham Primary School they will:
- Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
- Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- Gain understanding of historical vocabulary and concepts
- Make historical enquiries
- Make links with the past
History in the Early Years
A historian in the early years will show an interest in their own lives and the lives of people familiar to them. They will talk about events and people in their lives who are important to them, sharing special times and events from home with friends and staff. They will talk about similarities and differences between themselves and others, among families, communities and traditions. In small world play and role play they will imitate everyday actions and events from their family life and cultural background. They will notice different features in their environment, commenting and asking questions about the world they live in and the natural world. Developing an understanding of why things happen and how things work. A lot of learning in the early years takes place through purposeful play, both indoors and outdoors. Towards the end of Reception children will be learning skills to equip them for their future learning and later success in Year 1.
