History
Intent
At Highnam C of E Primary Academy, we aim to create a history curriculum that develops learners’ historical skills, understanding of concepts and knowledge. All three disciplines are carefully blended in planning and teaching recognising that all three are equally important to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum. Practioners are aware of the cumulative effect of teaching across the school and are mindful of longer term learning and the part that knowledge building and chronological awareness plays. Therefore, learners are beginning to draw upon earlier learning and make comparisons and contrasts.
In accordance of with the aims of the National Curriculum, our history teaching offers opportunities for pupils to:
- 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 and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
- gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales
Implementation
Practioners follow a clear and comprehensive in-house generated scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum (2014). At Highnam, we will ensure that our History curriculum:
- Stems from a historical enquiry or puzzling questions from which learning will grow over a sequence of lessons. On occasions pupils will raise their own enquiry questions and consider ways to tackle them.
- Includes objectives that build knowledge of people, events, situations and developments.
- Develops an understanding of chronology and historical terms.
- Uses evidence and artefacts that allows pupils to develop their understanding of interpretation, cause, change, similarity, difference and significance.
- Provides opportunities for pupils to communicate findings and decide how to organise and present their ideas effectively.
- Includes opportunities for enriching learning at significant local and regional historical landmarks.
- Once a year children will be assessed against progression map using a ‘best fit’ approach. Children will be assessed as ‘below ARE’ or ‘at ARE’.
We ensure our classroom environment supports, engages and celebrates learning. Outdoor learning and enhanced curriculum opportunities will be included in planning to ensure learning is irresistible with drivers at the centre. Cross-curricular links will be made where possible and is conducive to learning. Our curriculum is ambitious for all pupils and successfully adapted, developed and designed where appropriate for pupils with special education needs.
Impact
A cumulative approach to historical learning will help to give pupils a chronological framework which enriches historical language and pupils’ understanding of key concepts. This will inform later learning, not only in history but across the curriculum. Children will have an understanding of the importance of historical landmarks and how historical learning shapes our behaviours today. By the time pupils leave Highnam C of E Primary Academy in Year Six they will have a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and should:
- have knowledge and understanding of some of the significant people, events, and periods from the history of their locality, Britain and the wider world and be able to fit these into a secure chronological framework. They should have knowledge and understanding of different technological, scientific, cultural and aesthetic achievements along with social, political religious and economic developments from the past.
- be able to demonstrate their understanding of the past by describing some of the differences and similarities between the periods they have studied and by beginning to suggest causes and consequences of the main events and changes. They should be able to make some links and comparisons between periods of history. They should be able to identify some of the different ways in which the past is represented.
- be able to demonstrate their understanding of the past by describing characteristic features of periods and societies from the ancient to the more recent past, and by identifying contrasts, connections and trends within and across periods of history. They should be able to identify and describe some short- and long-term causes and consequences of the main historical events and changes studied. They should be able to identify and describe some different ways in which the past has been interpreted.
- be able to use different sources of information to help them investigate the past and use relevant information to support their findings. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
- be able to describe past events, people and developments using dates and terms appropriately and select and organise information to communicate their understanding of the past in different ways.
