History
Intent
At South Failsworth, we aim for a high quality history curriculum which is designed to ignite children’s curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our curriculum equips pupils with knowledge about the history of Britain and how it has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. Furthermore, it helps our pupils know and understand about significant aspects of the history of the wider world like ancient civilisations and empires; changes in living memory and beyond living memory; the lives of significant people of the past; methods of historical enquiry and it also develops pupils’ ability to ask and answer questions.
Our progressive history curriculum outlines the chronological understanding, knowledge & interpretation and historical enquiry in each year group, as well as identifying key facts and subject specific vocabulary. Local history is woven within our curriculum, providing the children with a sense of understanding about their local heritage.
Also woven into our curriculum are our key threads: Achievements and legacy, governance, empire, economics and movement and migration. As the children revisit each historical concept, they build on previously taught learning, developing their understanding and knowledge of each key thread, whilst observing how they change throughout time. You can see how these key threads are woven throughout our curriculum here.
We aim for our pupils to enjoy and love learning about history by gaining this knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of educational visits.
Implementation
In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught as part of a half-termly topic, focusing on knowledge, skills and understanding outlined in the National Curriculum. Key skills of communication, mathematics, ICT, problem solving, improving own performance and working with others are promoted through our unique creative curriculum, ‘Our World’. Key facts and vocabulary are shared with pupils through the use of knowledge organisers, which pupils use at school and at home.
At South Failsworth we teach history through an initial enquiry question. The enquiry is then broken down into specific smaller questions which create clear and progressive steps throughout the historical unit. Each enquiry question will focus on one or more of the following second order concepts: causation and consequence, change and continuity, significance, historical interpretations, and similarity and difference.
Retrieval practice is a key part of each lesson and provides the opportunity for children to recall previously taught knowledge. For example, each lesson may begin with a quiz or a brainstorm activity to practise the recall of facts from prior learning. Through regular retrieval practise, children are able to build a secure understanding of key facts within their topics, enabling them to make clear links between different areas of their learning in history.
We deliver history within a meaningful context and where possible cross-curricular links are explored, however we make our history learning explicit to the children and encourage them to think like ‘historians’. At South Failsworth, we ensure that history has the same importance given to it as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.
Impact
The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at South Failsworth are equipped with historical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world. History is monitored by a subject leader throughout each year group using a variety of strategies, such as book monitoring, lesson observations and pupil interviews to discuss learning and establish impact.
By the time children leave South Failsworth at the end of Year 6, they will be equipped with an excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods; an understanding of how history has changed and shaped their lives; an ability to think critically, weigh up evidence and form an opinion about events; a developing inquisitiveness about the past and a love of history.
You can read our rationale for the teaching and learning of history at South Failsworth below.