History Curriculum
History Curriculum Statement
‘A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time’. National Curriculum
At St Clare’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to providing our pupils with a creative curriculum that develops their knowledge of the past and inspires them to ask and understand historical questions. We strive to immerse our pupils into a curriculum that allows them to understand the chronology of British history and that of the wider world. We want our pupils to be confident, articulate learners who are able to express their knowledge and understanding of specific historical events and how these events have influenced a wide range of cultural societies and ways of life.
Intent
Through our creative curriculum, our intent is to provide children with key knowledge, historical skills and deep understanding of all aspects of Local, British and Global history. The national curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
- know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
- know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- understand 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
- understand 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 History.
- gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military.
Our aim is to provide real life, hands on experiences that develops a love for learning and encourages our pupils to think like historians. We want our children to be able to source reliable information, make judgements and communicate their understanding with confidence.
Implementation
Our history curriculum is taught in a progressive way which enables the pupils to explore key concepts and build on historical vocabulary as they move through each year group. In EYFS, children learn about the past using familiar people, events, locality as their focus. As children move through KS1 they build on this knowledge by exploring changes within and beyond their living memory, comparing aspects of life in different periods of time and learning about significant people.
Pupils in KS2 continue to develop a deeper understanding of British and World History by comparing periods of time, making connections, and developing their own informed responses through written narratives, discussions and creative activities. Each year, children will explore historical learning through two units of History.
To ensure our history units come to life, teachers plan enquiry-based learning allowing the pupils to delve deeply into a specific aspect of history. This motivates our pupils to explore concepts in a language rich, purposeful way, drawing upon previous knowledge.
Impact
What is the impact of our curriculum on the pupils?
- Children will be able to put studied time periods on a timeline in chronological order.
- Children will be able to verbally explain their knowledge and understanding of Historical concepts.
- Children will create written accounts, narrative and creative end of unit tasks to present and describe their learning.
- They will use a range of historical vocabulary to demonstrate their understanding.
- Children will be able to answer and ask historical valid questions.
- They will be able to use a range of primary and secondary sources to answer questions, interpret and analyse historical information enabling them to make appropriate judgements and arguments on specific concepts.