Intent

Learning about the past is crucial for understanding the present and how we may shape the future.  It teaches us how to learn from the mistakes and achievements of others. Our curriculum aims to lay the foundations of the belief that it is through knowledge of history that a society has knowledge of itself.

We want children to have a broad and balanced knowledge of the past, within their own locality, Britain and the wider world. We want out children to be both curious and fascinated about the past so that they are motivated to ask questions which explore and challenge knowledge of events in the past. 

In all historical themes, we want children to ask the question ‘Who had power?’ and through historical enquiry, they will interrogate the actions, motives and impact of significant figures and organisations.

Children will develop strong foundations for future learning through key historical enquiry skills focusing on chronology, causation, change, evidence and interpretation.

• Chronology. Possess a secure understanding of the chronology of the British Isles and other import periods of History with a particular focus on who has power
• Causation and change. Explain and organise the causes of events based on what they have in common. Recognise the impact of who had power, and begin to engage with leadership dilemma. Describe change over time and how this may or may not cause events
• Historical enquiry through evidence and interpretation. Use carefully selectied evidence to draw conclusions. Evaluate how useful and reliable evidence is based on who was capturing it. Understand that different interpretations of the same events exist and how these can change over time. Grapple with increasingly complex inquiry questions, presenting their own opinions through speech, diagrams, drawings and, in the later years, extended writing.

Implementation

The curriculum is led and overseen by the History lead who will carry out regular monitoring, evaluations and reviews to ensure that the history curriculum is vibrant, relevant and meets the needs of the children and statutory regulations, making sure that good practice continually evolves and improves.

Each year group undertakes two historical enquiries which build on their existing knowledge and historical skills. The children will ask ‘Who had power?’ and explain, in increasingly sophisticated terms, how this impacts the results of the inquiry.

KS1, the history curriculum focuses on the world around them and of events within living memory giving a meaningful context ensuring that the foundations for KS2 history are laid down.

In KS2, the History curriculum is set out in chronological order to allow children to reference the previous events in time and to refer to this prior learning year-on-year and within the year. 

Our drive to improve oracy across the curriculum is reflected throughout, with a focus on Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary and its use within extended and confident speech sequences. 

Impact

Over their time at school, children will:

• become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the locality and wider world that they currently live in. 
• Build on prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning. 
• have encountered or participated in high-quality visits/visitors to further appreciate the impact of History and to have the opportunity to develop their questions skills to learn more about the past.
•  become increasingly critical and reflective within their thinking be able to use these in their discussion and written work, making informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. 
• Explore and identify where the power lay in in each of the historical times studied and reflect on how this compares with other periods of history. They will use this knowledge to reflect on how this is reflected, or has shaped the present. 

History is assessed through staff collaboration and discussion around the evidence of children’s work.  A summative judgement is made each year and reported to parents.