History

Intent

At Carr, we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of History and appreciate how it has changed and shaped the world that they live in today. Our History curriculum is carefully designed and sequenced to ensure children gain a deeper understanding of the past, through studying the earliest civilisations, British and local history. Through an enquiry based approach, we encourage our students to be curious and inquisitive when exploring our big idea questions in order to form a deeper, more meaningful understanding. By recapping and building on prior knowledge, children are able to create strong connections between various concepts, allowing them to compare and contrast with ease. Since our key strands are repeated yearly, children build upon substantive knowledge using a range of disciplinary skills and adventurous vocabulary, helping them to understand what it is to be a historian. We also study a range of cultures and analyse events from various points of view, which enables children to demonstrate respect, tolerance and empathy. As well as class based learning, trips and visitors are vital to help the children get first hand experiences and be able to see things from a more personal perspective. We aim to weave all of these skills and knowledge together to help the children form a coherent picture of the past and its impact on the present.

Implementation

In order for children to know and remember more in each area of History studied, prior learning is always considered and opportunities for revision of substantive and disciplinary knowledge, as well as key vocabulary are built into each lesson. Through revisiting and consolidating these skills and knowledge, children build on prior knowledge before introducing new skills and challenges. Children have a range of opportunities to experience History through engaging activities which encourages them to question, analyse and problem solve to gain a deeper understanding of the past. Each lesson ends with a Blooms Taxonomy Question which allows the teacher to assess to what level the outcomes have been met and if further teaching is needed.

How we implement our History curriculum:

• High quality, sequenced planning to ensure all chosen areas of the National Curriculum are covered and that children are building on their prior knowledge.
• Activities and teaching is explorative and involves problem solving and investigating in order to encourage the children to delve deeper into the subject.
• During each Learning adventure, every year group goes on a trip or has a visitor in school. This gives the children first hand, practical experiences and helps them to form a deeper understanding.
• Throughout the year key Historical events, such as Remembrance day and the Black History Month, are celebrated through whole school assemblies which teach key knowledge of the subject and then whole school activities are completed to consolidate and deepen this new learning.
• Planning based around a learning adventure means that there are lots of opportunities for cross curricular learning.
• Knowledge organisers are used to present sticky knowledge for the Learning Adventure, which is shared at the start of every lesson and sent home to encourage discussions with parents and carers.
• Children produce a range of work in response to that week’s question, which is then presented in a scrapbook. This helps them to consolidate that week’s learning and confidently answer the Blooms Question, as well as being able to answer POP task questions at a later date to show that they have retained that knowledge.
• Lessons are taught in a progressive sequence which means that the children are building on prior knowledge to ensure that they have solid foundations. Then they are slowly introduced to new concepts. which allow them to delve deeper into the subject.
• Support is provided, when appropriate, by the class teacher, their critical friend or resources within the classroom. Chirping of ideas and good practice by the teacher helps children to stay on task and also gives them good examples to use and adapt.
• A piece of key vocabulary is introduced weekly and children are encouraged to use these in their work where possible.

Impact

• Children are very curious about the past and want to ask good, meaningful and insightful questions to understand more.
• Particularly by Year 6, children have a deep understanding of both Remembrance and Black History, and it’s importance today, as we consolidate this knowledge every year.
• Children can explain how certain events from the past have affected our lives today.
• Children have developed a good sense and understanding of chronology.

Impact is measured by analysing the quality of the children’s work and Blooms answers throughout the year, which is recorded at the end of each term. Children also complete a POP task a few weeks into the next unit of work to check that they have retained the knowledge. We are continually checking the impact of teaching on learning through lesson drop ins/observations, book and planning scrutinies and pupil and staff voices.

Documents

History Progression Map

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6