Intent

The history curriculum was designed in order for all children to have access to an ambitious curriculum. The curriculum focuses on links to prior learning and revisiting key aspects and themes in different time periods:

Key aspects:

• Chronology.
• Range and depth of history (cause and effect/comparisons/use of a range of evidence to support knowledge).
• Interpretation of history ID and give reasons for events, validate evidence, compare versions/accounts.
• Historical enquiry – artefacts, source evidence to build up a picture, difference between primary and secondary.
• Communicating information – recall, select appropriate vehicle.

Themes:

• Everyday life
• Significant people
• War/invasion
• Religious/spiritual beliefs
• Human discovery and inventions
• Local history

Importance of trips and handling artefacts

Historical vocabulary has been mapped across Year 1 to 6 so that the pupils build on prior learning and knowledge developing a rich history language to communicate their knowledge and findings.

The history curriculum has been designed to be ambitious and to give all pupils, including disadvantaged and SEND pupils, the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. We believe that a quality History curriculum should develop children’s love of history. It has been planned to be coherent, sequential and progressive to provide pupils with sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning. The curriculum is adapted for SEND pupils to be successful.

It is important for pupils to develop a sense of identity through learning about the past and to know how history has shaped their lives. The local area is fully utilised to achieve the curriculum outcomes (please see PLA overview).

Implementation

Teachers teach history by making links with prior learning and re-visiting learnt knowledge at set time intervals to help establish recall. Membership to the History Association provides resources and information to help deepen knowledge. Unit Content Organisers provide an overview for teachers. Formative assessment enables teachers to monitor progress and address misconceptions.

The long-term and medium-term plans map out the key aspects and themes covered each term for each year group. These plans define what will be taught and where links to prior learning can be built on.

Overview of units