HISTORY

  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 develop:  

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past;    

• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences;    

• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources;    

• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry;    

• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their learning;    

• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics;    

• A developing sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.   

Implementation 

Our History curriculum follows a simple model.   

• Our Breadth of Study – the topics students will study based on the National Curriculum and the needs of our pupils  

• Threshold Concepts – the ‘big ideas’ in history that students will explore through every topic:   

1. Investigating and interpreting the past,    

2. Building an overview of world history,   

3. Understanding chronology   

4. Communicating historically    

• Milestones – the goals students should reach to show that they are meeting the expectations of our curriculum.   

• Knowledge Categories - areas of study to strengthen and contextualise the concepts (Settlements, Beliefs, Culture and Pastimes, Location, Main Events, Food and Farming, Travel and Exploration, Conflict, Society, Artefacts)  

Impact 

Through high quality teaching, we develop the following essential characteristics of historians:    

• How to investigate primary and secondary sources and interpret what they find;   

• An understanding that history is a story that we tell about the past and that different peoples and cultures may tell different stories about the same events; 

• A firm, chronological understanding of historical events; 

• An extensive base of historical knowledge and vocabulary;    

• The ability to fluently apply their growing understanding of different historical concepts, such as culture, beliefs or society, in different contexts;    

• The ability to reach clear conclusions and explain their findings;   

• The knowledge necessary to view modern Britain, including their local area and family histories through a historical perspective;    

• The ability to express well-balanced opinions, rooted in very good knowledge and understanding about current issues in society and the environment;   

• A genuine interest in the subject and a real sense of curiosity about the world and how things came to be the way that they are.