History

Intent

At Tushingham, we aim to nurture a love of history and inspire children’s awe and wonder in the world in which we live.  Over their time at our school, children will develop their historical knowledge and will leave with a broad, balanced and coherent understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. The history curriculum is ambitious and designed to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. 

History lessons develop the long-term memory of our children, fit within the wider curriculum and build on skills taught in other subjects.  History lessons utilise the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community while supporting spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to develop children’s capital culture and understanding of the world.

Children prosess a secure understanding of the chronology of the British Isles and events of the wider world.  They can place knowledge they gain through each topic within the context of their wider understanding.

Develop children’s understanding of substansive concepts, which are revisited progressively through different units, including: Society and Community, Exploration and Invasion, Power, Conflict and disater which also includes a historically-grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’ and ‘monarchy’.

Ensure there are repeated encounters with historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance in each year group and use these to draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts.

Inspire pupils’ curiosity encouraging them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Historical enquiry skills are built on progressively throughout units.

Through the teaching of History, we endeavour to teach pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, including those of the present, the process of change, the diversity of societies and beliefs, whilst celebrating these differences.  

 

Implementation

At Tushingham the history curriculum is implemented through units which comprise well-planned, exciting and coherent sequences of lessons tailored specifically for our children. Topics/units are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.

The History Curriculum Progression document maps progression from KS1 to KS2 in each unit of work including key historical concepts: Chronological understanding, Historical knowledge, Historical interpretation, Historical enquiry and organisation and communication. 

Differentiated timelines for each of the key stage 1 and key stage 2 classes ensure children have secure chronological knowledge, both in terms of sequencing periods of history and of having a clear sense of characteristic features of these periods.  As they move through key stage 2, timelines work will support knowledge of where one period sits with their knowledge of another.

We plan units of work following an enquiry approach: children are engaged in a valid historical enquiry or puzzling key question through which learning grows over the sequence of lessons.

Planned, systematic encounters with the concepts of society and community, exploration and invasion, power, conflict and disaster are planned for developmentally to support progress.

Lessons always include objectives for building knowledge of: people, events, situations and developments; chronology and characteristic features; historical terms.

Within any sequence of lessons there are repeated encounters with the historical concepts of: continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance.  Repeated encounters with these concepts are planned for progressively.

Lessons and experiences are specially tailored to be relevant to our local community.

A love of reading is promoted through the use of high-quality texts and exciting reading opportunities.

In EYFS history is embedded within whole class inputs and provision.  Learning us completed through capturing the children’s interests, relating it to personal experienced and allowing exploration.  To support transition between key stages, pre-learning of KS1 topics ‘Toys’ and ‘Holidays’ takes place. 

In KS1, History begins by looking at the children’s own personal history and introduces them to the idea of chronology and timelines.  Children understand chronology in terms of ‘within living memory and ‘beyond living memory’. In KS1, History will look at significant events and people who have shaped society, locally, nationally and globally.

In KS2, each year group studies aspects of local history, a British history topic and an ancient history topic. In KS2, UK history is taught chronologically to allow children to confidently place each time period. This allows pupils to consistently build on previous knowledge and learning by placing previously taught History topics on a timeline.

In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons. At the start of each topic children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a unit.

We plan for effective use of educational visits, visitors and living history days, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experience and the History curriculum. The opportunity to study artefacts in school and during visits is highly engaging and supports development of enquiry, investigation, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and presentation skills.

Teachers use highly effective Assessment for Learning at different points in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed. A range of assessment tools and differentiation are used to support and scaffold individual learning needs, we ensure that each pupil can access the History curriculum.

Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children are able to achieve their learning intentions, with misconceptions addressed within it.

Pupils are regularly given the opportunity for Self or Peer Assessment, which will then be used to inform planning, preparation, differentiation and address misconceptions within that lesson, or for the next lesson.

End of term assessment allows us to use data to inform future practice.

Impact

The impact of this curriculum design leads to good progress. The high quality teaching of the history curriculum leads pupils to be enthusiastic historians, evidenced in a range of ways.

Children can articulate the skills and knowledge they have acquired, demonstrating clear engagement with the subject and an eagerness to develop their learning further.

They develop a sound and coherent understanding of the history of the British Isles and that of the wider world.

 Children will become increasingly critical and analytical in their thinking, making informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past.  Children will become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world in which they live.

Over their time at Tushingham, children will have encountered and participated in a wide range of visits, visitors and history events.

All pupils achieve the best possible outcomes in history.

 The school is history rich, promoting a love of learning for this subject and encouraging further studies beyond the classroom.

Children leave our school ready to deepen their knowledge of History at High School. 

 

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We Would Love To Hear From You!

Tushingham-with-Grindley
C of E Primary School

Tushingham, Cheshire, SY13 4QS

Mrs L Devaney

01948 820360

admin@tushingham.cheshire.sch.uk

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