History

Rationale

Intent:

History is a very powerful subject that sparks curiosity of the past in Britain and the wider world. Our focus is on the impact / legacy of the periods studied on modern day life.

Children gain chronology skills when placing significant events / people / places over time.  Chronology skills should include sequencing (placing events in order), intervals (distance between events) and duration (how long periods last). Children also identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. Key Stage Two children learn to place each period of history studied onto a timeline. This enables them to understand where to locate themselves in relation to periods / themes studied and how the themes are positioned in chronological order.

Children also gain enquiry skills as they gather and interpret evidence from a wide range of sources (artifacts, books, internet) to answer a variety of questions. Children are encouraged to use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. Skills developed through historical enquiry promotes historical awareness and responsible citizenship. Children should develop tolerance and understanding and be able to empathise with people in history. They should be open-minded and develop an understanding of cultures in history and appreciate them for their qualities.

Early Years Foundation Stage - children should listen to stories, ask how and why, use the past, present and future tense, talk about the past and present in their own lives and the lives of family members, recognise similarities and differences between families and traditions, objects and materials and use role play

Implementation:

How is our curriculum implemented?

At Underwood Academy we teach regular history related themes taught.  The learning objectives of each lesson draw from knowledge and skills included in the National Curriculum. Themes chosen have cross-curricular links. History provides a context for expression using the arts and technologies.  A range of teaching approaches are also encouraged:

• Teacher presentations, role-play and story-telling.
• Question and answer sessions, discussions and debates.
• Individual and group research and presentations.
• Investigating artifacts, maps, photographs, paintings and other documents as sources of evidence.
• Critical analysis and evaluation of sources of evidence.
• Computing - interactive white board and internet resources and other visual and audio resources.

History comes alive in any way that we can make it happen. Children’s learning is developed further as they are given the opportunity to live as others would have in the past through forest school / educational visits / visitors and workshops which link to the topic. This also provides a range of ‘memorable experiences’ to support IPEELL and extended writing opportunities. We also, when appropriate, encourage links between home and school by asking the children to complete topic based homework / research during holidays.

Impact/ priorities for this year:

• Embed the history planning into all year groups and for all teaching staff to further develop their confidence in delivering a progressive geography curriculum.
• To ensure that achievement of ARE or above in hstory is consistently high across each year group and that the gaps are narrowed in previously low attaining cohorts.