History at Pucklechurch
Our intent
We intend to provide our children with a rich and varied curriculum, which enthuses children to develop a genuine love for learning and the confidence to approach new learning, with a growth mindset. This will in turn encourage the development of skills and knowledge associated with the subject, involving making connections within and between historical eras and events.
We believe that the implementation of wide cross-curricular learning opportunities and experiences support children’s development of conversational skills and a rich vocabulary, levels of engagement, debating and reasoning skills throughout the learning process. Drawing on reading skills will also enable our learners to gain insight into the rich diversity of our world’s present and past.
Our implementation
The history curriculum includes four sections; chronology, interpreting and investigating, knowledge and understanding and relevant vocabulary. Rich resources and enticing themes support the children to learn key skills in a meaningful and interesting way.
Learning will begin in reception as they recall significant events in their own lives including special times with their families or friends and move on to learning about significant changes within living memory as well as significant events beyond living memory such as The Great Fire of London in Key Stage 1. Children will also learn about the lives of significant individuals who have contributed to national and international achievements. Examples of such include Neil Armstrong and Christopher Colombus. In Key Stage 2, children will learn about the changes that took place in Britain from Stone Age to Iron Age. Other areas of history include the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain and the Viking and Anglo Saxon struggle for the United Kingdom. These themes will provide them with opportunities to develop their skills in order to 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.
Our Impact
Children will be able to verbalise their knowledge as well as demonstrate this in a range of activities, including writing tasks and within different subjects. Learners will develop a coherent knowledge of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and demonstrate curiosity about different time periods. Children will be able to use specific vocabulary related to each era studied, as well as historical skill related terms. Pupils will learn to ask questions about historical eras and weigh evidence in a range of sources to make judgements about the past. These analytical skills will be developed across each year group and give learners abilities to apply in future topics of work and across different subjects.
Diversity in History
Our History curriculum teaches our children about the lives of significant individuals such as Rosa Parks and in Key Stage 2, children discover the legacies of early civilisations from around the world ensuring that they have the opportunity to learn about civilizations from further afield such as Benin, the Shang Dynasty of Ancient China and the Maya.
To ensure that our children learn about key historical figures who embodied our school values and led by example, we consulted staff, parents, governors and children named our 'hubs' after 4 inspirational people from different fields: Mary Seacole, Neil Armstrong, Sir Isaac Newton and Martin Luther King.