Intent

In history, we aim for all of our children to see themselves as historians. We endeavour to inspire a sense of curiosity in our children and develop their enthusiasm for history, recognising that the skills and knowledge they learn through history can be used to have a positive impact on God’s world around them.
 

To be able to be a historian, children will need to build up the skills, knowledge and understanding of the past.  They will need to understand and use the language of history and apply these historical skills and knowledge across the curriculum, making connections both within History and across other subjects too.
 

To be a historian, children need  support to build a temporal awareness and a developing sense of identity as they come to understand their place in the story of human development. As a school we recognise that engaging children and young people in enquiry questions about people and events in the past helps them to better understand their lives today, the contested nature of knowledge and prepares them for the future as more informed citizens. Adopting an enquiry approach to engage our pupils with a relevant, exciting and challenging History curriculum which inspires curiosity and is appropriate for preparing them for an adult life in the 21st century is essential since it:

• Helps them to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as some of the challenges of their time;
• Develops skills of critical thinking which means making reasoned judgements that are logical and well thought out and not merely accepting arguments and conclusions as they are presented but  having a healthy, discerning and questioning attitude about new information;
• Supports them to appreciate that all knowledge is socially constructed and its objectivity and reliability is therefore open to critiquing through asking perceptive questions, weighing evidence, sifting arguments and developing perspective and judgement;
• Helps to build a sense of identity and belonging on a personal, cultural, national and global level as pupils come to appreciate the diversity of human experience and consequently understand more about themselves and as members of society;
• Enables pupils to understand and apply the skills of a historian through disciplinary knowledge such as chronology, evidence and interpretation, cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference and historical significance. 

Implementation

The National Curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. 
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind. 
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’. 
• 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. 
• 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.
• 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.

How we plan for progression in history at St Gregory’s:

The St Gregory’s Curriculum is designed around the enquiry approach. Each has been structured and sequenced in order to engage pupils in purposeful learning by building on prior knowledge and helping connect knowledge, understanding and skills year-on-year both within history and across other subjects too.
 

History is taught every other term from Year 1 to Year 6. Each unit is driven by an overarching enquiry question, for example, children in Year 1 answer the question ‘Why should we remember Mary Seacole?’. Each lesson within the unit is driven by a sub question that will contribute to the answer to the overarching enquiry question. Links to locality have been made where appropriate and as a school we maintain strong relationships with the Wilson Museum where museum boxes can be accessed to support the chidlren’s learning.  

We recognise that foundations for becoming a historian are laid in the Early Years Foundation Stage through all seven strands of the Early Year Framework (especially Understanding the World) and to be ready for the next stage in their education, the starting point that we strive for every child to have upon entry to Y1 and working towards the aims of the National Curriculum is:
 

Understanding the World

• To engage with experiences that support children’s developing knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
• Engage with text that foster understanding of our culturally and socially diverse world.

Mathematics

• Develop an understanding of measure through sequencing events

Communication and Language

• To be able to learn and use new vocabulary.

Once children enter Y1, they work progressively towards the aims of the National Curriculum.  To ensure progression, the curriculum coverage was carefully considered as well as identifying substantive knowledge, disciplinary knowledge and golden threads (substantive concepts) for each unit. 

Golden Threads (substantive concepts)

History curriculum coverage

We adopt an enquiry led approach to history which enables our pupils to learn as young historians and to understand the kind of questions that historians ask of the world. Through enquiry our pupils not only build their substantive knowledge but become increasingly adept at disciplinary thinking and making connections to prior learning and the golden threads. We structure learning in History through big question led enquiries which are both in depth focused and also enable pupils to develop their chronological awareness of themes and issues over more extended periods of time. Our curriculum is therefore ‘knowledge rich’ rather than content heavy as we recognise that if we attempt to teach historical topics in their entirety, we will create a very shallow learning experience for our pupils. Consequently we adopt a policy of immersive learning in History that provides sufficient time and space for our pupils not only to acquire new knowledge and understanding but also to develop their appreciation of the importance of subject concepts.
 

Coverage is based on the National Curriculum 2014 PoS with objectives allocated across phases and year groups, to ensure a progression of knowledge, skills and understanding.  For example:

This document has been crafted to ensure that all National Curriculum objectives are taught to children at least once through out their time at St Gregory’s. Each unit has been carefully placed to be appropriate to their age and infitting with the progression of skills needed for successful achievement. This document is reviewed and agreed by staff regularly to ensure that the children are getting the best from their history curriculum.

History Progression of skills

The Disciplinary Knowledge Progression document identifies the skills of a historian the children will be developing and applying throughout their units of history. For example:
 

History Progression of Vocabulary

Vocabulary, at an age appropriate level, is paramount to the children’s understanding and ability to articulate their intent and enable questioning. It is, therefore, a key consideration in history planning.  Key subject vocabulary is introduced at the appropriate time, building on prior knowledge. 

Planning

Planning for history uses a standard format consistent across all foundation subjects. When planning for history teachers utilise the Whole School Progression document which encompasses the National Curriculum agreed objectives and the Disciplinary Skills Progression document to craft engaging lessons. 

These are the documents used to plan lessons in History.

See History Vision for more information.