History

"The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are."

Maya Angelou

Curriculum Statement – History

Intent

History helps pupils to 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.

Through studying a rich, varied and exciting history curriculum we aim for our children to understand that the past has many different facets, and recognise similarities and differences between eras. We want our children to learn from History, to understand change and societal development and to be able to develop their own views, arguments and opinions about the past. They will develop the skills to appropriately use research and sources to consider historical information and to develop a range and depth of historical knowledge and chronological understanding.

We aim for history to be a lived experience, and arrange visits or visitors to enrich the children’s understanding. Opportunities will exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom.

Implementation

Our curriculum is shaped by our whole school vision. This aims to produce curious learners who are well equipped with the skills and resilience to overcome challenges they may face in an ever changing world. Our History teaching is progressively planned to help children understand the past, to evaluate what they know and find out and to understand key concepts in History.

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This is mainly based on the progression set by CUSP (Curriculum with Unity Schools) but we supplement this with additional work to support the needs of our particular children, for example in year 2 children learn about George Cadbury as this links to our locality.

Our History curriculum ensures skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children, and we make links between years and subjects explicit to the children. We believe history to NOT be simply about the transmission of information; it is about interpretation and the nature of evidence, and these are skills we develop in our children.

History is 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, and we use quizzes at the start of each lesson to maximise retrieval between sessions. We understand that spaced practice is effective in building long term memory, so we make links between History learning and other subjects, and build in retrieval modules into the year so children have time to reflect back on their previous learning.

It is important that children develop the skills of a historian by fully immersing them in all concepts linked to the subject, and the vocabulary associated with it. We use knowledge notes in every History lesson to set the key learning points. These support teachers planning but are also a visual aid for children to refer to during, and after the lesson. Children additionally benefit from Knowledge organisers in their books and a copy at home.

Cultural Capital

We have based our curriculum around our local area, especially in key stage one. Children learn about the History of Maypole and the surrounding areas, and local historical figures. We then take children far back in time to explore the Stone Age and build forward in time from that as the curriculum journey progresses through key stage 2. Children learn about a range of different historical periods, and these have been selected to enrich the knowledge and experiences of our pupils. Our Windrush generation module in year 6 is particularly beneficial to our cohorts to support their understanding of diversity.

Impact

By the time children leave Hollywood Primary school they will:

Have experienced a wide range of learning challenges within the subject and know appropriate responses to them.
Participated in visits be able discuss how the experience impacted their knowledge and understanding.
Give confident and articulate explanations of understanding about their learning in History
Be aware of how fundamental British Values are evident in History and understand how the subject can celebrate difference.
Understand how events in history have influenced the modern world.
Understand how to decide the reliability of varied sources and can apply these skills.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: