Teaching History at Haselworth Primary School

Intent

Our History curriculum inspires children to understand the history of their country and to appreciate the events that have led to the world in which they live and grow.

All pupils will be given opportunities to:

• Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day.
• Know and understand how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.  
• Understand and use precise vocabulary related to periods of study and the passage of time.
• Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.          
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.              
• Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

How do we teach History?

It is essential that the teaching of history is based on the needs of each individual in terms of their development. History can be accessible for all pupils with support and a clear understanding of how each pupil is developing. Pupils should be catered for to ensure that the learning opportunities are accessible to them and more able pupils should be challenged to think increasingly deeply and apply a greater depth of explanation and vocabularic understanding.

At every possible opportunity we seek for the pupils to learn through enquiry and exploration of the past. Enquiries should encourage students to apply key historical learning skills such as empathising, analysing, understanding cause and effect and deepening chronological awareness. We seek to bring the past to life through stories and P4C enquiries where possible, helping our pupils to realise that these were real people striving to lead interesting and fulfilled lives in their context. History also provides opportunities for our children to develop their communication skills through role play and extended writing/presenting opportunities for purpose.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in History, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught through a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum.

We carry out the curriculum planning in History in three phases: long-term, medium term and short-term. The long-term plan maps out the topic covered in each term during the key stage. The subject leader works this out in conjunction with teaching colleagues in each year group.

Our medium-term plans have been written to link to the themes that are taught in each year group each term/half term. They identify skills that that are taught/practiced by children each lesson and ensure there is progress in these skills each year.

 We plan the learning in History so that it builds upon the prior learning of the children at the appropriate level for the individual. We give children of all abilities the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in this way so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move through the school.

Class teachers complete a weekly plan for all foundation subjects including History. These list the specific learning objectives for each lesson and show brief details of how the lessons are to be taught. The class teacher keeps these plans on a staff shared drive.

At Key Stage 1, pupils should develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They should use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. They should understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.

Pupils should be taught:

• changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life
• events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries]
• the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell]
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.

At Key Stage 2, the pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance. They should construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information. They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

In planning to ensure the progression described above through teaching the British, local and world history outlined below, teachers should combine overview and depth studies to help pupils understand both the long arc of development and the complexity of specific aspects of the content.

Pupils should be taught about:

• changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
• the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
• Britain’s settlement by the Anglo-Saxons and Scots
• The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England at the time of Edward the Confessor
• a local history study
• a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
• the achievements of the earliest civilisations
• Ancient Greece
• A non- European society that provides contrast with British history

The Foundation Stage

As the reception class follow the Statutory Framework for EYFS, we relate History to the development of the children’s Early Learning Goal: Understanding the World.

Inclusion including Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

All children will have Quality First Teaching. At Haselworth Primary School we teach History to all children, whatever their ability. History forms part of the school curriculum policy to provide a broad and balanced education to all children. Through our History teaching, we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different needs. Teachers will also take into account the targets set for individual children in their Individual Education plans- as appropriate.

In all classes there are children of differing ability. We recognise this fact and provide suitable learning opportunities for all by matching the challenge of the activities to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:

• setting common learning activities that are open-ended and can have a variety of results;
• setting learning of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks;
• setting specific learning according to individual needs and targets
• grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group;
• mixed ability grouping which facilitates peer support and discussion
• providing a range of challenges through the provision of different resources and scaffolds;
• using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups.

Equality

All teaching and learning of History will ensure that every child has the right to be included and supported as far as possible in the knowledge that there is equality in terms of opportunity, social background, race, gender and disability. Religious beliefs of pupils and their families will be respected at all times.

Assessment and Recording

Teachers assess children’s work in History by making assessments as they observe them working during lessons. They record the progress that children make by assessing the children’s work against the learning objectives for their lessons.

Throughout the unit of work, teachers make a judgement against the National Curriculum statements and the subject’s long term progression of skills on INSIGHT (The school’s data tracking platform used for all core and foundation subjects). A summative assessment for the subject is made at the end of each unit of learning.

Teachers then use the data that they record to plan the future work of each child and to make an annual assessment of progress for each child, as part of the annual report to parents. Each teacher passes this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year.

Impact

The monitoring of the standards of children’s work and of the quality of teaching in History is the responsibility of subject leader. The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of History, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school.

The subject leader has time within school to review evidence of the children’s work and undertake drop in visits of History teaching across the school. The following information outlines how subject leaders monitor, evaluate and review their subject.

• Subject Leaders use self-evaluation and write clear action plans and ensure that they are understood by all those involved in putting the plans into practice, including staff who are new to the school. These are reviewed termly and contribute to the monitoring, review and evaluation of the school development plan.
• Subject Leaders develop a cycle of monitoring throughout the school for the academic year, ensuring that they can make judgements about the standards within their subject. This includes learning walks, planning and books looks and pupil conferencing
• Subject leaders report their impact to Governors via reports or attending FGB to present.
• Subject Leaders ensure that teachers are clear about the teaching objectives in lessons, understand the sequence of teaching and learning in the subject, and communicate such information to pupils.
• Subject Leaders ensure curriculum coverage, continuity and progression of skills in their subject for all pupils, including those of high achievers and those with special educational or linguistic needs;
• Subject Leaders establish a clear, shared understanding of the importance and role of the subject in contributing to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development, and in preparing pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
• Subject Leaders use data effectively to identify pupils who are underachieving in the subject and, where necessary, create and implement effective plans of action to support those pupils;
• Subject Leaders create a climate which enables other staff to develop and maintain positive attitudes towards the subject and confidence in teaching it