History
Intent
The aim of our history curriculum is to foster and harness a love and ‘thirst for knowledge’ of History amongst our children. History is a non-core foundation subject and we aim to provide our pupils with a knowledge based, immersive and engaging curriculum which inspires them to be inquisitive and to develop a desire to learn about people and events in the past, both in Britain and the wider world. We want to provide our children with memorable experiences, ensuring that the planning and delivery of an engaging and innovative curriculum is at the forefront of their development as historians. At St Catharine’s, we want children to grow to understand more about themselves in society and that what they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values in everyday life. The history curriculum should equip them with the necessary skills and language to confidently express their point of view.
History Is Fun
Implementation
Our History curriculum is firmly embedded and established across all key stages, through the use of topic based planning. During each key stage, historical knowledge, skills and understanding are developed through areas selected from the subject content area of the history Programme of study. (National Curriculum 2014)
At Key stage 2, Children are taught the periods of History chronologically starting with the Stone Age. In the History curriculum, the pupils’ curiosity about the past is encouraged. Pupils are taught to consider how the past influences the present, what civilisations and life was like in the past and how beliefs and cultures had an effect on their lives. Pupils are encouraged to think about the challenges of the time as well as how their own identity has been shaped by those actions. As they do this, pupils should develop a chronological framework and build a bank of knowledge about significant events and people.
Through the History topics, children are given the opportunity to look at a wide variety of possible sources, including artefacts, which they will be encouraged to investigate, discuss and interpret. Wherever possible, both visits to the school by outside agencies and visits to historical sites and museums will be used as a strategy to stimulate children’s interest in the past and to support the teaching and learning within a specific historical topic.
Impact
Becoming effective historians embeds the children with many other skills which thread through other areas of the curriculum. They become inquisitive and establish skills that allow them to research their own answers. History allows children to express their own opinion on an event and challenges them to consider the opinion of others. It allows them to challenge the validity of evidence presented to them and to present their findings or opinions to others.
At the end of each topic, assessment takes place through a post learning task and teacher observation which follows the agreed school format of a foundation traffic light system to show meeting expected targets, greater depth or working towards.
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