History

The subject leader for History is Mrs England.

History Curriculum Statement

Intent

At Grange, our intent is to teach History in a carefully considered way which will help our learners have a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past and which will allow them to develop critical thinking skills.  We aim to develop their sense of self and their heritage through a good sense of chronology – which will help them to understand Britain’s past and indeed the chronology of the wider world. 

During the academic year 2021-2022, History is a priority area of development for us.  Teachers and governors are working in collaborative project teams to ensure that the intent, implementation and impact of our History curriculum is meaningful and engaging for our children, leading to better outcomes.

We intend our History curriculum to encourage our learners to engage in a process of enquiry – to be able to question, weigh evidence, develop perspective, understand bias and appreciate why there are different versions of the same event.  We plan to provoke children to ask perceptive questions, to make inferences and begin to understand the complexity of people’s lives and the process of change; to begin to appreciate the diversity of societies and relationships as well as understanding their own identity and the challenges relevant to them.

History can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves and of common humanity

so that we can better face the future.

                                                                                                Robert Penn Warren                      

Implementation

In EYFS, early opportunities are provided  for children to begin to engage with History. It  involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension. We recognise that visits and visitors need to provide experiences which the children may otherwise not have and where possible, provide positive role models from the community for children to learn from.

By the end of Early Years therefore, the children should be able to:

• Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society.
• Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now,
  drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
• Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.
• Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, teachers plan lessons which provide a carefully sequenced progress ion of historical skills which can be applied across the History curriculum alongside specific knowledge about a range of topics, which have been chosen to reflect the interests and context of the pupils in our school.  Teachers plan to bring the curriculum to life with visits and visitors so that children have real-life experiences and can interact with primary and secondary sources and real-life artefacts where possible. Teachers also plan in themed days where the class experience a Titanic Day in Year 6 or dress up as members of the Royal Family in Year 2.  We utilise quality resources for example, through the Lancashire Heritage Centre and we acknowledge our local historical connections making the most for example of our proximity to Ribchester and the Ribble Valley to study the Romans.

In Year 6 we visit France, where we get opportunities to visit museums and battlefields, which brings our World War 1 topic to life. We visit towns such as Ypres in Belgium, where we always take part in the Menin Gate Ceremony – an occasion which is very important to us as a school.

Impact

We assess the impact of our History curriculum in a range of ways which includes:

• Summative assessment of learning
• Images of the children’s practical learning
• Children’s work saved onto their individual accounts or in teacher evidence files
• Observations of pupils learning and engagement during and after visits and fieldwork lessons
• Reflective evaluation of lessons, (AfL) leading to review and adjustment where needed
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice) through formal and informal monitoring and through our RRSA committees
• Annual reporting to parents of standards across the curriculum
• Termly reports to governors and attendance at governor curriculum meeting
• A range of monitoring actions, including staff audit of skills, scrutiny of plans and books, deep dives