INTENT

At Temple Normanton Junior Academy, we aim to deliver a History curriculum that is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. Our teaching of History will help pupils gain a secure knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers use the long term plans for History to make comparisons between historical periods previously taught, developing children’s chronological knowledge and understanding from the Stone Age to present day.

 We want children to be curious to know more about the past and to have the skills required to explore their own     interests. History lessons focus on working as historians and developing historical skills.

We aim to enable children to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. It is important for children to develop a sense of identity through learning about the past and we want them to know how history has shaped their own lives.

IMPLEMENTATION

History in the foundation stages is taught through the ‘Understanding the World’ strand of the EYFS curriculum. In our nursery, the children participate in discussions about themselves and their families and are introduced to language that relates to the past and present. This is built on in FS2, where children make connections between their families, draw on their own experiences and what they did in the past and learn about people and events from the past. The key skills stated in the curriculum goals and the focus on communicating effectively and developing new language and vocabulary ensures our pupils are prepared for the next stage of their history education. Within KS1 and KS2, the key knowledge, skills and vocabulary of each unit builds progressively across year groups, allowing children to build on and embed prior learning and make links across units.

In KS1, pupils develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They create timelines to help them know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They use a range of sources to develop their understanding of key features of events. In order to ensure this progression, pupils are taught about changes within living memory and extend to go beyond the living memory. For example, they are taught about the Great Fire of London, as well as the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

In KS2, the pupils continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. Through their thinking about the cause and consequences of people and past events on Britain and the world today, they devise historically valid questions and construct informed responses, using a variety of sources and their historical interpretation and enquiry of this. They use their organisation and communication skills, to display the deeper knowledge gained, to meet the needs of the end of key stage National Curriculum expectations. A good progression of skills and vocabulary can be seen through the progression map and planning.

Throughout their study of the past, our children increase their substantive knowledge. This is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used about the past. This is learning about people, places, events and changes.

When learning History, children also increase their disciplinary knowledge; this is the use of that knowledge and how our children construct understanding through historical claims, arguments and accounts. We call it ‘working historically’ and may involve significance, evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective and contextual interpretation.

The children’s understanding and knowledge of historical facts will be broadened through the teaching of the following key skills and concepts: 

• Chronological knowledge and understanding
• Range and depth of historical knowledge
• Historical enquiry
• Organisation and communication
• Interpretation of History and historical perspective
• Change and continuity
• Cause and consequence
• Similarity and difference
• Significance

The long-term and medium-term plans map out the skills and themes covered each term for each year group. These plans define what we will teach and where links to prior learning can be built on.

IMPACT

The impact of teaching and learning will be evident in our pupils’ enthusiasm for History and their curiosity to know more about the past, evidenced through classwork and displays, engagement in lessons and through pupil voice. Work will evidence the range of themes being covered, concepts which are continually revisited, and the cross curricular links made to other subjects.