History

  • Mr Phillips

    Mr Phillips is the History subject leader at our School.

Intent

The aim of the Shilbottle Primary history curriculum is to provide a high-quality history education that will help pupils gain a coherent and chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world by thinking like historians and examining and enquiring like historians. Building on the special characteristics of our pupils and their experiences, Shilbottle Primary provides a carefully planned, balanced and relevant curriculum that explores, and makes use of, the depth of historical resources within the immediate and wider area to develop a deep understanding of the locality. Through a clear sequence of learning opportunities and careful differentiation of subject matter, opportunities are provided to connect, compare and contrast historical events in the local area to those nationally and those of the wider world, considering and understanding that history and specific events across the world have influenced many aspects of our culture, beliefs and routines of today.  

 

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance, which aims for all children in the Foundation Stage to have an ‘Understanding of the World’; people and communities, the world and technology’  by the end of the academic year. In KS1 and 2, history is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England and is taught in blocks throughout the year, to ensure children have depth in their learning.

All learning starts by revisiting prior knowledge and is scaffolded to support children to recall information and make connections and careful consideration is given to how learners will be supported in their work in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. Knowledge organisers are provided to assist in retaining facts and important historical vocabulary and are used for pre-teaching, supporting home learning, to highlight key vocabulary and to assess learning throughout the relevant topic. Learning in KS2 is carefully planned to utilise the depth of historical resources and archaeological sites of interest in the surrounding area to develop a chronological timeline of events and deepen historical knowledge, with each topic using children’s familiarity with their local area to relate important historical events before broadening their knowledge and understanding of the wider world. Through the development and understanding of the passage of time, children in Year 5 and 6 look to manipulate the timeline by researching and studying ancient civilisations from the wider world; identifying similarities and differences, making connections and drawing contrasts to previously taught events happening in Britain during the same period of time. 

Links to other areas within the curriculum are used to deepen learning and develop key skills. Strong links are made between English lessons and the history curriculum enabling further contextual learning through non-fiction writing. 

 

Impact

Outcomes of work are monitored through an end of topic assessment as detailed in pupils Knowledge Organisers and through staff moderation meetings, where books are scrutinised at the end of each topic block to ensure they reflect a sound understanding of the key identified knowledge.  Pupils are also interviewed at the end of topic blocks to discuss their learning (Pupil voice). Progress and attainment is measured across the academic year through the use of Classroom Monitor which is used to inform teachers’ and leaders’ of school improvements or skills that need to be further enhanced.