The Grove Primary School

History Curriculum Statement

Vision:

Our History curriculum is designed to engage children to have an understanding of our past and to understand how History will shape their future. We aim to teach the children core skills and knowledge which they can apply in specific topics learnt in various year groups such as, having chronological understanding of events and periods of time, having knowledge and understanding of specific aspects of history and to develop historical enquiry. We want the children to become enthusiastic learners about History so that they have an interest in critical thinking, promoting discussions and debates and allowing children to develop their sense of perspective. We would like children to become interested and passionate about having a career in History in the future. We want to be able to provide rich and practical experiences to our children who may not receive them outside of school.

Intent:

In order to do this, we follow the programmes of study of the National Curriculum for History. We also teach skills based on Weaving Skills. Our teaching aims to provide the children with knowledge and facts about specific events and periods of time over the year so that the children have a secure understanding of how the world has changed and shaped over the years to where we are today for example, how housing has developed and progressed over the years. We intend to provide a number of practical opportunities for the children to engage and learn about core skills in relation with History and make many cross curricular experiences within our curriculum e.g. learning about the past within our English and Maths lessons. We also want the children to develop historical skills to examine and question artefacts such as objects and photographs from periods of the past. We want the children to generate their own beliefs and opinions based on the information that they are given. We intend to make the past visible for children by bringing resources and experiences to the children so that they can learn first-hand. We want to embed the skills into everyday life at The Grove so that the children are not aware that they are always explicitly doing them.

Implementation:

Our History curriculum will be full of topics which foster awe and wonder and drive children to ask the question ‘why’. The History topics within The Grove Primary will help children to gain an understanding of the complexity of people’s lives and the process of change; as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. History is taught in every year group within the school beginning at EYFS where they will be taught about Knowledge and Understanding of the World by looking at past and present events in their own lives and in lives of family members through to Year 6 where they can say where a period of time fits on a timeline whilst summarising the main events from a specific period in history, explaining the order in which key events happened. Teachers are providing a rich and varied curriculum to then teach children about the wider period of time in which they currently live in. Challenging questions are provided to promote deeper thinking and impacts of activities taken. The curriculum is designed to build on the children’s prior learning and to widen their knowledge historical events from their current period of time to various historical events from more recent decades ago when our school was built to millions of years ago when the dinosaurs existed. Trips, visitors and educational visits are frequently provided to enhance the learning experience within the classroom.

In addition to the classroom teaching, we are extremely keen to educate and equip children with the joy and pleasure of learning about the past. We have an extensively equipped library in which the children can extend their own subject knowledge. We also aim to provide children with opportunities to learn about history in extra-curricular clubs.

Impact:

Our History Curriculum is well-thought out, relevant and appealing to all of our children. It provides progression throughout the children’s primary experience at The Grove Primary to enable the children to develop previously taught and learnt skills. Children are assessed against skills and knowledge to see if they are making good or better progress within History to equip them with the skills needed to extend upon each year and ultimately to be well prepared for the next stage of their education. We want the children to have enjoyed learning about History, equip them with the necessary historical and enquiry based skills, knowledge and vocabulary to enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3. Most importantly, we want the children to have a passion and interest in their past and understand how life can progress and develop over the years. We aim for our children to be inquisitive learners where they can use evidence to find out about the past and then challenge what has happened by analysing and interpreting the evidence and artefacts to question whether they believe and agree with the information given.