History and Geography

Our Curriculum for History and Geography is based around CUSP (Curriculum Unity Schools Partnership). This defines the content pupils will learn, building on EYFS learning and progressing to Year 6. History and Geography are taught in blocked units throughout the year (see Curriculum Map for more information). We believe this approach allows children to become immersed in their learning during a week or two weeks.

We believe in meaningful retrieval and connections to past learning, this is supported by retrieval quizzes at the start of each lesson. We understand that spaced practice is effective in building long term memory, so we make inter subject connections and build in retrieval modules into the year so children have time to reflect back on their previous learning.  Teachers can then make skillful connections to prior knowledge as they are aware of the previous studies, over time, and they make the most of the Big ideas maps that are provided by CUSP, to navigate the sequence of the study.

This curriculum has been used as the foundation for plotting key language that is instructed within the History and Geography CUSP units. This ensures that pupils have the opportunity to learn and rehearse vocabulary in meaningful contexts, thus committing it to the long term memory.