Intent

In our school, the teaching of history inspires curiosity about the past and how it has shaped the world in which we live today. We aim to help our children to think like historians by asking perceptive questions, thinking analytically and evaluating evidence to develop perspective and informed judgements. 

Through their study of history, our children will gain an  understanding of the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. We believe that if our children have a good understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, they will develop values and opinions based around tolerance and equality which will have a positive impact upon the future. 

Implementation

Our history curriculum has been designed so topics build on one another with clear progression and links so that in subsequent year groups, children will be able to explore concepts deeper, applying their knowledge in different contexts.

Each history topic is driven by a ‘key concept’ to enable children to focus on a particular aspect of  history allowing them to gain a deeper understanding.  Key concepts have been linked across year groups to ensure children understand that there are similarities and differences across historical events and periods. 

Through our carefully constructed ‘key questions’, our aim is to support children to become inquisitive and reflective learners who are able to organise their knowledge and showcase their understanding of what they have learnt. 

By offering a variety of enrichment activities across our history curriculum, we provide equality of access to knowledge and understanding, where all our pupils can achieve their full potential. These exciting and memorable activities also act as cues which our pupils can use to help retrieve key historical knowledge generating sticky learning.

Knowledge Progression 

Each unit of work within our history curriculum is further developed in a 'learning journey' document, which describes, in detail, the key knowledge that we want the children to acquire. 

These documents provide the medium term planning details that staff require to ensure prior knowledge is built upon, whilst looking forwards to future learning opportunities. In our EYFS setting, history knowledge progression can be found in the 'Understanding of the World' learning journey, whilst in Key Stage 1 and 2, each history topic has a specific learning journey. 

History at Alston Lane