History Lead - Sarah Linford

Intent

The intent of our History curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more.

As a result of this they will:

 ● Increase and develop their historical skills, concepts, knowledge and attitudes.

● Increase their understanding of the present in the context of the past.

● Develop and use their skills in enquiry, analysis, evaluation, and argument.

● Develop their interest in the past, arousing their curiosity and motivation to learn.

● Develop a sense of identity through learning about the past.

Implementation

Why do we teach History? Why do we teach it in the way we do?

 History intends to prepare each pupil with the next step in education whilst at the same time giving all pupils a broad and balanced view of the history of Britain and societies and a particular period of time in history or a person’s life. Pupils will develop knowledge of the past and its events, with the intention to improve every pupil’s cultural capital, understanding of the world around them and their own heritage.

At Calverton we have designed our curriculum with the intent that children will:

form a History Mental model within their long-term memories.

Schema theory states that all knowledge is organised into units. A mental model is, therefore, a conceptual system for understanding knowledge.

Our History Mental model is a way of organising History substantive and disciplinary knowledge in a meaningful way; it is an appreciation of how facts are connected and the ways in which they are connected.  It is distinct from information, which is just isolated facts that have no organisational basis or links.

Big Ideas help form the basis of the mental model. Big Ideas are key concepts that underpin the subject. There are two Big Ideas in History:

• Building an overview of world history (Appreciating the characteristic features of the past and that these features are similar and different across time periods, and understanding that life is different for different sections of society.)
• Working Historically – (Understanding how to chart the passing of time and how some aspects of history happened at similar times in different places. Recognising that our understanding of the past comes from an interpretation of the available evidence and using historical techniques to find out about the past.)

Impact

Through the high quality first teaching of History taking place we will see the impact of the subject in different ways.

Through pupil voice children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more. The school environment will be history rich through displays, resources, vocabulary etc.

As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in History will be high and will match standards in other subject areas.

Provision in EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding of  the World’. This aspect is about how children find out about past and present events in their own lives, their families and other people they know. Children are encouraged to develop a sense of change over time and are given opportunities to differentiate between past and present by observing routines throughout the day, growing plants, observing the passing of seasons and time and looking at photographs of their life and of others. Practitioners encourage investigative behaviour and raise questions such as, ‘What do you think?', ‘Tell me more about?', 'What will happen if..?', ‘What else could we try?', ‘What could it be used for?' and ‘How might it work?' Use of language relating to time is used in daily routines and conversations with children for example, ‘yesterday', ‘old', ‘past', ‘now' and ‘then'.