Intent

At St. Marks, we aim to instil in pupils a curiosity and fascination about history that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We have a carefully planned and structured curriculum to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy.

The children will have a good understanding of chronology through learning about Britain from the Stone Age to the present day as well as a realisation of the rich history in and around their local area. Children are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. They understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. They understand that the present is rooted deeply in the actions and decisions that have been made in the ‘ancient’ times while the future will be shaped by the actions and decisions that are made in the present.

At St. Marks, pupils will become skilled historians who can think analytically about history, recognise how contrasting interpretations of the past have been formed from a range of sources and interrogate how historical evidence is used to make assertions about the past. They will develop the skills of refining questions, making connections, drawing contrasts and analysing trends over time. Pupils will be able to articulate their understanding of historical concepts such as continuity, change, causes and consequences, similarities, differences and historical significance, through imaginative forms of communication.

Implementation

History teaching focuses on enabling children to think as historians.

• We place an emphasis on examining historical artefacts and primary sources of information. In each key stage, we give children the opportunity to visit sites that are local and of historical significance.
• We recognise and value the importance of stories in history teaching and we regard this as an important way of stimulating interest in the past. We focus on helping children understand that historical events can be interpreted in different ways and that they should always ask searching questions, such as ‘how do we know?’, about the information they are given.
• We recognise that there are children of widely different history abilities in all classes, so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child.
• We provide children with a variety of opportunities for historical learning inside and outside the classroom, including visiting experts, educational visits, fieldwork and residentials, all, of which, enhance the historical learning experience.
• We value the importance of home learning, so appropriate curriculum-themed home learning tasks will be given out, which children complete with adults at home.

We use the National Curriculum for History as the basis for our planning in history, but we have adapted this to the local context by building on the successful units of work already in place. We ensure that there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit and we build planned progression across the year so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school. Termly themes link History and other curriculum subjects where appropriate and these are identified on the class plans.

Impact

Our History curriculum is planned so that pupils have a good understanding of historical concepts, knowledge, skills and vocabulary that ensures they achieve age-related attainment at the end of each Key Stage.

Upon completion of each project, teachers will assess children against the progression of historical concepts, knowledge and skills document. Termly assessment will take place to track children’s progress against age-related expectations for History.