Intent

The intent of the history curriculum is that our children will have a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.

We deliver a curriculum that:

• Inspires children’s curiosity to know more about the past
• Equips pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement
• Allows children to build on prior knowledge about what they already know about the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• Guides children to know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world
• Supports children in understanding the methods of historical enquiry
• Teaches historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts and interpret information
• Allows children to place their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history

Implementation

The History Programme of Study provided by the National Curriculum sets out the following subject content

Pupils should be taught about:

• 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
• 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
• significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

It also sets out the following skills that should be developed:

• Develop an awareness of the past using common words/phrases relating to the passage of time
• Order events in a chronological order
• Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods
• Use a wide vocabulary of historical terminology
• Ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events
• Understand some of the ways that they can find out about the past
• Identify different ways in which the past is represented

In order to achieve this, LIS has broken down the programme of study to ensure both progression and coverage across FS2 and Key Stage 1, and developed a teaching, learning and sequencing of the curriculum as follows: 

• The history progression of skills is organised into five main themes: Chronological Understanding; Range and Depth of Historical knowledge; Historical Enquiry; Interpretation of History and Organisation and Communication.
• Each theme will be taught explicitly through exciting topics, including links to other areas of the curriculum
• A teaching sequence builds on knowledge and skills across each year group and across the school
• Continuous CPD for teachers to ensure their skills and knowledge is developed to teach the skills confidently and accurately

Impact

• Continued training and support for teachers ensuring they are the experts in the subjects that they teach
• There will be a clear progression of skills across FS2 and Key Stage 1 that builds on prior knowledge that can be demonstrated in books and by talking to children.
• Our children will be confident historians and will be able to clearly discuss their learning from past and current topics, as well as explain their next steps

Please click here to see our Progression Map for History