Intent
Our intention at St Mary’s is to build a broad, balanced and exciting History Curriculum. History helps us understand change and societal development whilst giving us a context from which to understand ourselves and others. At its very core we want our history curriculum to equip children with the confidence to question, make connections and learn from events in the past. In addition to this, we also want our children to understand that they can have an impact on significant historical events of the future. Our history curriculum is based on an adapted model of the Early Years Framework and the National Curriculum. Progression documents have been introduced in order to build on the skills needed to meet the end of Key Stage objectives in the National Curriculum. Our long term plan is broad and balanced, allowing children to access a wide variety of historical periods.
Implementation
Teaching of history at St Marys is regular (one topic per term) and through the history progression document which is in line with the EYFS and the National Curriculum. This is used to aid teaching staff in their subject knowledge, organisation and delivery. At the beginning of every lesson children are reminded about previous learning in the subject, links to the current topic being covered and significant concepts taught in previous lessons in the topic.
Where possible each topic is accompanied with the hiring of an artefacts box which have high quality resources to help children understand how people lived in the past and the technology that shaped that generation and the impact that era of history had on our current lives. Trips are used to enhance topics such as visiting Bury Art Museum for the topic of Victorians and Ribchester for the Romans’ topic. In addition, experts have been used such as an Anglo Saxon and Viking visitors who both come in character, have a wealth of resources and expertise whilst creating a real buzz around school.
Impact
Our children have a rapidly developing understanding of what makes a historian. History blends well with other areas of the curriculum such as English and the reading curriculum is constantly evolving to include texts that support learning in History such as Queen of Darkness in Year 4.
Pupil Voice is incredibly important in ascertaining how well History is being taught in school. We can ascertain the children’s enjoyment, engagement and development. Crucially, within a lesson, children are given time to reflect on their learning and take part in self, peer and group feedback. As part of this, quizzes are used to help children secure knowledge in their long term memory. These are especially beneficial to broaden the children’s historical vocabulary and show progress over the course of a lesson. Teachers use questions in lessons to develop children’s understanding of topics being covered. They use the high quality progression document based on Chris Quigley’s History document file to help children deepen their understanding over time. In lessons teachers use the POP (Proof of Progress) tasks to make a judgement on those children who are below, at or beyond year group expectations. POP tasks further deepen connections in a schema by gradually changing the nature of thinking. POP tasks are categorised into three cognitive domains: basic, advancing and deep.
Assessments are based on teacher judgement, whereby, in each session, any children who are not meeting lesson objectives, and those who are exceeding and performing at a higher level are recorded and targeted for future support in subsequent lessons. These weekly assessments will not only inform future sessions but will also provide a half termly overview of children’s progress within their year group’s expected outcomes. In the EYFS observations are recorded in the children’s personalised online learning journey- Tapestry. In the EYFS observations are recorded in the children’s personalised online learning journey- Tapestry. Pupils are assessed within People and Communities (Understanding the World (NB From September 2021 this will be called Past and Present). Progress is tracked and age related expectations are reported to parents at the end of the year.