History

Curriculum Intent: History

In response to our mixed-aged classes, our curriculum is implemented on a two-yearly programme (Cycle A and Cycle B). This ensures complete curriculum coverage for our pupils. As children progress throughout the school, they develop their knowledge and skills through a range of topics. By Year 6, all children will have followed our Curriculum Narrative pathway.

Characteristics of a Historian

An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.
The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas very confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgments.
A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics

Implementation

Our pupils should be able to organise their knowledge, skills and understanding around the following threshold concepts:

Chronology
Investigating the Past
Communicating History
Thinking Like a Historian

These threshold concepts underpin learning in each milestone. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language.

The study of history can bring pupils into a rich dialogue with the past and with the traditions of historical enquiry. Through history, pupils come to understand their place in the world, and in the long story of human development. The study of history challenges pupils to make sense of the striking similarities and vast differences in human experiences across time and place. Pupils learn how historians and others construct accounts about the past.

Vocabulary

The promotion of a language rich history curriculum is essential to the successful acquisition of knowledge and understanding in history. Children have access to key knowledge, language and meanings to understand History and to use these skills across the curriculum.

Our History Vocabulary Document identifies key vocabulary to be taught from Reception to Year 6. These words are part of a whole host of work aimed at narrowing the vocabulary gap for our children. As a school we aim to expose all children to a broad range of vocabulary and provide them with the skills to use and apply these.

Aspirations for the Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs:

Member of Parliament
Curator
Publicity Assistant
Tour Guide

Inspirational Figure

Impact

Assessment

Through the explicit teaching of the history skills, both the teachers and the pupils assess their learning continuously throughout the lesson. Our assessment systems enable teachers to make informed judgements about the depth of their learning and the progress they have made over time. The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at St Joseph’s leave with the historical skills and knowledge that will prepare them for history at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

We want the children to have enjoyed learning about history, encouraging them to undertake new experiences now and in the future.

Pupil Voice

“I really like History and learning about the past because I find out about the different cultures and how they lived.”

Lennon

“We compare how people from the past lived and use our History working wall to show our learning.”

Jessica

“As Historians this term we have learned about the Shang Dynasty. We have researched key people from the past, looked at main event and compared them to modern day.”

Alfie

Snapshots