History
FPS History Curriculum Statement
Intent
At Flintham Primary School we deliver a broad and balanced History Curriculum, which is matched to the National Curriculum objectives. Our history curriculum is designed to provide children with the opportunity to develop, build and master their skills, knowledge and understanding of Britain and the wider World through an historical lens. Each unit of study is designed to revisit and build on knowledge of previous learning and build and develop new skills and knowledge to show progression to the end of year Key Stage expectations.
Historical vocabulary is to be progressive and become embedded. This vocabulary is both specific to a particular unit of work or eg. Parliamentarian, Tudor or an historical term – substantive concept eg. Civilisation, monarchy. These terms are to be continually inter-weaved into each topic where they apply.
Our curriculum enables children to make links to their own lives and those of relatives (living and past), places and people in their locality and the wider world and also to other curriculum subjects(particularly links with Geography and Art) providing opportunity for oral discussions.
It is our intent for each child to develop the following strands of historical understanding:
HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE: The facts and substantive knowledge
HISTORICAL LENS: The interpretation/opinion/ relationships /Disciplinary Knowledge /Key Concepts/ Big Ideas
Weaved into each unit of study are Second Order Concepts:
1.Cause and Consequence
2.Changes and Continuity
3.Similarities and Differences
4.Historical Significance
Implementation
Our History Curriculum is mapped by units of work across whole school in line with National Curriculum objectives. For each unit of work there is an overview with an enquiry question title. The overviews outline the WOW starter, key knowledge, specific and substantive concept vocabulary and second order concepts related to the topic.
EYFS:
The ELG which demonstrates the prerequisite skills for History within the national curriculum is ‘Understanding the World’ and the two areas of ‘People, Culture and Communities’ and ‘Past and Present’. The objectives in both areas are weaved in to the programmes of study.
Key Stage 1:
Changes within Living Memory
Local Area
Significant Individuals
Key Stage 2:
British History
World History
Local History
Teachers plan their units of work following our overview structure and the whole school two-year plan. Where there is a linked Geography unit, our curriculum planning enables these to run concurrently, precede or be subsequent to the relevant historical unit. The plans and objectives enable progression and consistency throughout the school. The planning and resources are kept on the computer system and each year group has the ability to also look at other year group’s planning and AREs to make sure progression, coverage and learning is being taught. This also enables teachers to share planning and resources within the school.
Each teacher has started to produce Knowledge Organisers (KOs) for each unit in History and these are given out to the parents and children before the topic begins. A KO sets out the important, useful and powerful knowledge regarding topic on a single page. Their purpose is to provide an organised foundation of the factual knowledge needed in a particular unit of work and facilitate our pupils being able to retrieve and apply this new knowledge. They also help children to focus on specific questions relating to the topic and coverage within each year group.
A further purpose of the KO is to provide spaced retrieval opportunities to transfer key learning from pupils’ short term to long term memory. This is achieved by low stake quizzing and presenting the children with gaps in the KO to assess what has been remembered at pertinent times in the learning sequence. The KO can also be used as an assessment tool at the end of the unit and outcomes can then be used to inform assessment of History at the end of the academic year.
Where we can, and often forming our WOW starter, we include class history days, trips and visitors to school that link with topics furthering the children’s excitement and enthusiasm about our History Curriculum.
Impact
Teacher assessment, books, pupil interviews and KO assessments are used to assess and record the progress that pupils are making in terms of knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more at the end of each academic year. It is important that historical assessments go beyond the recalling of facts but also assess the children’s historical thinking, ‘the historical lens’, and assess children’s growing understanding of 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. It is also important that the children have gained an understanding of 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.
These judgements will be quality assured by the subject leader using first-hand evidence of how pupils are doing, drawing together evidence from pupil interviews, observations of tasks, work scrutiny and discussions with pupils about what they remembered about the content they have studied.
These judgements will inform the curriculum and whether children are ready for the next stage of their education.
Our Curriculum Documents - Mapping and Progression
Elements of our History Curriculum
Whole School Mapping Overview
Whole School History and Geography Mapping Overview
Whole School History Mapping Overview
EYFS Knowedge and Understanding Mapping Document (see knowledge and understanding section for history)
Progression Documents
EYFS Knowledge and Understanding Progression (History)