History

At Gorseland Primary School, we want children to develop a love for History and a desire to learn about the events that shaped our world, making it what it is today. We believe that History should be a subject that is brought to life by experiencing history through multiple mediums. This approach will encourage children to ask why certain events happened and will push them to find these answers out for themselves, transforming them into historians. Children should feel confident in discussing different eras of history from around the world, using key terminology important for that period in time. History deserves to be a subject that broadens a child’s understanding of the world beyond what they see and interact with day to day. We will strive at Gorseland to enrich our pupils with this knowledge to help them understand the world around them. 

By adopting a consistent approach to History across Gorseland, we will aim to:

• Enable children to understand key moments in British history.

• Develop a child’s terminology when discussing a historical period.

• Encouraging our pupils to engage actively in the history they are learning.

• Promote a desire to learn about history and for that desire to be from a place of wanting to expand their understanding.

• Encourage children to question why things happened and to search for the answers.

• Enable children to use the key terminology in their work.

In order to meet the aims of the National curriculum for History and in response to the Ofsted Research review into History, we have identified the following key strands:

• Substantive concepts.

• Disciplinary concepts.

• Historical enquiry.

• Chronological awareness

Our history curriculum emphasises the importance of chronological knowledge across all strands to support the development of substantive concepts, historical skills and historical enquiry. These strands are interwoven through all our History units to create engaging and enriching learning experiences which allow the children to investigate history as historians do.

Each six-lesson unit has a focus on chronology to allow children to explore the place in time of the period they are studying and make comparisons in other parts of the world. Children will develop their awareness of the past in Key stage 1 and will know where people and events fit chronologically. This will support children in building a ‘mental timeline’ they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 and identifying connections, contrasts and trends over time.

Units are organised around an enquiry-based question and children are encouraged to follow the enquiry cycle (Question, Investigate, Interpret, Evaluate and conclude, Communicate) when answering historical questions.

Through our history curriculum, children develop their understanding of the following key disciplinary concepts:

• Change and continuity.

• Cause and consequence.

• Similarities and differences.

• Historical significance.

• Historical interpretations.

• Sources of evidence.

These concepts will be encountered in different contexts during the study of local, British and world history. Accordingly, children will have varied opportunities to learn how historians use these skills and will confidently develop and use their own historical skill set. As children progress through Our history curriculum, they will create their own historical enquiries to study using sources and the skills they have developed.

Substantive concepts such as power, trade, invasion and settlement, are clearly identified in lower key stage 2 and revisited in upper key stage 2 (see Progression of skills and knowledge) allowing knowledge of these key concepts to be expanded. 

These concepts are returned to in different contexts, meaning that pupils begin to develop an understanding of these abstract themes which are crucial to their future learning in History.

Our history curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. For example, children progress by developing their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of historical contexts and periods.

Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hands-on, allowing children to experience the different aspects of an historical enquiry. In each lesson, children will participate in activities involving disciplinary and substantive concepts, developing their knowledge and understanding of Britain’s role in the past and that of the wider world. Children will develop their knowledge of concepts and chronology as well as their in-depth knowledge of the context being studied.

After the implementation of Kapow Primary History, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be enquiring learners who ask questions and can make suggestions about where to find the evidence to answer the question. They will be critical and analytical thinkers who are able to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past.

The expected impact of following the Kapow History scheme of work is that children will:

• Know and understand the history of Britain, how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.

• Develop an understanding of the history of the wider world, including ancient civilisations, empires, non-European societies and the achievements of mankind.

• Develop a historically-grounded understanding of substantive concepts - power, invasion, settlement and migration, civilisation, religion, trade, achievements of mankind and society.

• Form historical arguments based on cause and effect, consequence, continuity and change, similarity and differences.

• Have an appreciation for significant individuals, inventions and events that impact our world both in history and from the present day.

• Understand how historians learn about the past and construct accounts.

• Ask historically-valid questions through an enquiry-based approach to learning to create structured accounts.

• Explain how and why interpretations of the past have been constructed using evidence.

• Make connections between historical concepts and timescales.

• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for History.

Children complete quizzes at the end of the majority of lessons which assess the key knowledge from that lesson as well as prior knowledge from previous lessons. Teachers use the information gathered from these quizzes to address misconceptions and move the children's learning on. At the end of each unit, children complete a quiz which assesses the key knowledge from the whole unit. The children's quiz scores are used alongside teachers' observations of learning to form a termly judgment as to whether each child has met, exceeded or is working towards the expected standard in History.

The subject leader monitors teaching and learning in their subject through observing teaching and learning in lessons, talking to samples of children in different year groups about what they know and remember from their learning and termly data analysis to track the progress of learning in their subject across the school.