History

Aims of The National Curriculum

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

The Teaching of the Curriculum

At Birley Primary Academy, we strive to ensure that our children develop a secure knowledge that they can build upon; therefore, our History curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way. Chronological understanding, historical understanding, historical enquiry,  interpretations of history, the notion of significance and organising and communicating historical knowledge are all mapped out to ensure children build upon secure prior knowledge. These can be viewed on the academy’s skills progression document below.

History is delivered through subject-specific teaching, organised into the academy’s blocked curriculum under a theme that have been purposefully developed to help children appreciate their own identity and challenges faced in  time. We take an enquiry-based approach to teaching History whereby each topic is framed upon key questions that guides the teaching.

Meaningful cross curricular links are made with other subjects to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils while exploring historical contexts, particularly within our English Curriculum. Where possible, Reading and Writing lessons are linked to the topics and enrichment activities are planned in order to help immerse the children in the topic helping to make the learning more memorable.

There are selected substantive concepts (outlined in the Historical Concept) that reoccur in topics across the key stages, which enable children to gain a good understanding of chronology and make links between different periods of history. These links are outlined in each topic overview to ensure teachers understand the children’s prior learning and use timelines to help support their chronological understanding.

At the start of each topic, children will review previously learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about their current topics. At the end of the topic, children complete a post-assessment quiz which assesses their retention and focusses upon factual and chronological knowledge. Throughout each topic, children are provided with a knowledge organiser detailing some key information, dates and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and is used as a reference document.

History in the Early Years

In the Early Years Foundation Stage children begin to learn that as they grow up they are increasingly able to do more things for themselves independently. This emerging knowledge and understanding is used to explore crucial early historical skills. Activities in the EYFS address a number of key historical concepts of chronological awareness. These are presented through a cross-curricular approach that aims to develop children’s learning across a range of the key learning areas. The children are introduced early on in their learning to methods which will help them to develop an understanding of chronology, which is essential for communication and language as well as numerical literacy. These include:

• Beginning to use historical based language – language associated with the passage of time
• A sense of uniqueness and of belonging to a community
• Developing a sense of historical enquiry;
• Comparison and contrast, similarity and differences, variety;
• Historical narrative and sequence and a sense of chronology and duration;
• An introduction to handling artefacts and the use of evidence.

Enrichment

Educational visits are an integral part of the curriculum at Birley Primary Academy. They help bring history ‘alive’ and give real substance and relevance to classroom learning. Visits to places such as a Hardwick Hall and access to their resources and expertise has provided valuable insight to understanding history at the local level and making links of our past. Year 4 undertake a visit to Murton Park to support pupils’ learning about the Vikings and their impact on Britain.

History theme days are also part of the curriculum to give pupils a fun and immersive experience with the historical periods they are studying. They take place during identified topics so that pupils are familiar with the historical context. Our theme days include learning about The Great Fire of London in Year 2 and a day based upon World War II for Year 6. Further to these days, whole school themes, such as Black History Month and Remembrance, all require pupils to focus on specific aspects of History.