History
At Bishop Martin CE Primary School our Guiding LIGHT Curriculum is built around the National Curriculum, enriched to reflect the children and community we teach.
We strive to provide a curriculum that is underpinned by our Christian Values, which are embedded in the life and work of our school, and to allow all our children to 'Let their Light Shine'.
Let Your Light Shine Before Others So They May See Your Good Deeds' (Matthew 5.16)
National Curriculum - Purpose of Study
History is all about people. The study of people of different types from different times and different places is the most important aspect of our work. History fires pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Pupils consider how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. As they do this, pupils develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. They see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. In History, pupils find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions. To do this, they need to be able to research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view – skills that are highly prized in adult life.
The aims of the 2014 National Curriculum are for our pupils to:
-
Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
-
Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
-
Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
-
Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
-
Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
Intent
History has always been held in high regard at Bishop Martin. Topics are informed by the National Curriculum and are sensitive to the children’s interests and the context of the local area and its history. The curriculum at Bishop Martin has been carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning, building upon existing skills covered in previous years in more depth, and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy. With God at the centre of our school, every child is valued. We prepare them to be a member of a class, school, and local community and also for their future role in modern Britain and as a global citizen. The curriculum ensures academic success, creativity and problem solving, reliability, responsibility and resilience, as well as physical development. Wellbeing and emotional health are key elements that support the development of the whole child and promote a positive attitude to learning.
Through the teaching of a bespoke and purposeful History Curriculum, children at the end of Key Stage 1 will :
-
Develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.
-
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.
-
Use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.
-
Ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
Through the teaching of a bespoke and purposeful History Curriculum, children at the end of Key Stage 2 will:
-
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.
-
Understand connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
-
Regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
-
Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
Implementation
Curriculum Planning
By the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They will be able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time-periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Egypt, the Islamic Golden Age and the Greeks.
Planning is informed by and aligned with the National Curriculum. However, teachers’ lesson design is not limited by this and may be informed by other resources, such as the History Association. Outcomes of work are regularly monitored to ensure that they reflect a sound understanding of the key identified knowledge. An important part of the History Curriculum is the ability to retain and re-use knowledge, vocabulary and skills in a progressive and developmental way throughout the journey through school. Retrieval practice takes place within each lesson. It is created to re visit key areas from the unit being covered and also other previous units for the children. Teachers will use this as a teaching assessment tool too as it will show the understanding and retention of the key information.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in Reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people, culture and communities; and past and present’ by the end of the academic year.
History is taught discretely across the school from Y1 upwards. The History objectives are taken directly from the National Curriculum. The Subject Leader, alongside Class Teachers have developed a bespoke curriculum to ensure breadth and coverage.
Each topic has a well-planned, medium-term plan with National curriculum objectives recorded. Each topic has:
-
Learning objectives – written as ‘I can…’ statements to link into teacher/self-evaluation
-
Detailed knowledge and skills written into each lesson to ensure coverage
-
An impact task – this could be in the form of a quiz, an extended written task, a mind map or another suitable task to support accurate teacher assessments
History Subject Overview
Impact
As a result of our History Curriculum, children at Bishop Martin will have a deeper understanding of people from different times and places and be able to explain how their life has been influenced by events from the past both globally and locally. They will be able to compare their own life to the life of people in history and understand how society has changed. Children will also have an understanding of chronology including where significant events and people feature on a timeline and how periods of time follow on from one another. Through using a range of resources and artifacts, they will be able to form their own views by finding evidence, weighing up the facts and reaching their own decisions. Throughout the History Curriculum, children have plenty of opportunities to discuss evidence and their conclusion. As a result, key historical vocabulary will be used throughout lessons to support their ideas and opinions and will be built upon during each topic.
Impact will show through formative assessment throughout the History lessons and marking of books. This will be used to support and identify specific areas children need to develop. This knowledge will then impact on the daily planning of lessons to support and develop these specific areas.
An impact task will also be given at the end of each half term, this will link directly to knowledge and skills covered throughout the unit and will measure the children's understanding. Teachers then use this to inform their judgements on askEddi (school assessment system) each term.