History

Intent

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 to be able to communicate historically.

We develop children with the following essential characteristics to help them become historians:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past;
• 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.

Implentation

We will implement these intentions through following the guidance of the National Curriculum closely and history is planned to be taught in chronological sequencing. Links will be made to locality and significant individuals (including their achievements or legacies) Some areas of enquiry across KS1 will be revisited in KS2 to help pupils develop links and understanding between historical periods and how they interlink through developing a wider understanding as they move up the school.

Teachers will plan at least one trip or external visitor per year to link with their learning and help develop the keen minds of historical enquiry amongst our pupils.

Support for staff will be offered from all of the history team across the collaboration so that members of staff feel supported with their teaching and planning of history.

Wherever possible, children should be given hands on experiences of learning about the past and its impact upon modern society through practical lessons and carefully planned for trips to enrich pupil understanding.

Impact

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, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. We will be able to measure this through monitoring of the tracking grids and also reflective responses given to a half-termly deeper thinking question. These responses should be independent to gauge pupil understanding.