Curriculum

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History

Intention (Why do we teach what we teach?)

At Stoke St Michael Primary School, our children are Historians!  We intend to captivate and ignite our pupils’ curiosity about the past and develop their historical knowledge, skills, and concepts. We want them to appreciate and learn from the past to provide a solid grounding from which to guide their future. We aim to engage children with their local heritage as well as learn about significant global time periods, and the evidence that informs our understanding today.

History connects humans to the past and present, and helps people understand their place in the world. We want our children to understand why societies are the way they are, to understand how events in the past shaped the present, and to value their own cultural heritage and traditions. We aim to encourage an appreciation of the diversity of human experience and the development of empathy for people from different backgrounds. History helps people learn from the past and avoid repeating mistakes and build a better future for themselves and generations to come. We hope our pupils will develop qualities of perception and judgment that encourage active, reflective, and reasonable engagement with other humans.

We want our history lessons to be memorable, creative and exciting so that they deepen the understanding of historical concepts, knowledge and skills, and promote moral, social and cultural development. The curriculum is designed to ensure children are equipped with knowledge about the chronology of British time periods, significant aspects of history in the wider world, the nature of ancient civilisations, empires, and the achievements and follies of mankind. To achieve this, we provide stimulating and challenging lessons and help every child secure and extend their historical knowledge and vocabulary, as well as promoting a love and thirst for learning. At Stoke, we have a coherently planned and sequenced a two-year rolling programme, which has been carefully designed and developed with the needs of every child at the heart of what we do. We want to equip our children with not only the knowledge gained from the minimum statutory requirements of the History National Curriculum, but also the skills that will prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life.

Implementation (How do we teach it?)

  • At Stoke St Michael, History topics are taught to mixed-age classes.
  • Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
  • As pupils progress through school, their growing knowledge about the past helps them to deepen their understanding of their cultural heritage.
  • Historical knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that develop a profound understanding of the chronology of significant time periods and societies, both within Britain and internationally, enabling them to see the interconnectedness of history.
  • Every year, groups will build on learning from prior year groups, thus developing depth of understanding and progression of skills.
  • Teachers promote enjoyment and foster interest of the subject by giving real world examples and making links across the curriculum and to cultivate critical and analytical thinking skills that allow children to question, interpret, and understand historical events and their implications.
  • To support children in their ability to ‘know more and remember more’ there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
  • At the start of each topic children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic.
  • To support teaching, teachers access a range of resources and planning from a variety of sources including the Historical Association, British Museum and others.
  • Teachers use highly effective assessments for learning in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed.
  • Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children achieve their learning intention, with misconceptions addressed within it.
  • Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the history curriculum.
  • Children are given clear success criteria to achieve the learning intention with differing elements of independence.
  • Pupils are regularly given the opportunity for self or peer assessment, which will then be used to inform planning, preparation, differentiation and address misconceptions within that lesson, or for the next lesson.
  • Cross-curricular links are planned for, with other subjects such as Geography, RE, English and PSRHE.

Impact (What has been the impact and how do we know?)

The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time, across key stages, relative to a child’s individual starting point and progression of skills. As children progress through school, they will develop critical and analytical thinking skills, enabling them to make informed judgments based on historical contexts. They will gain awareness of how historical events shape the world they inhabit, fostering a personal connection to history.

They will explore topics of interest and seek out resonant information and benefit from trips to historically significant sites to enhance their learning experiences and create lasting memories.

Children will therefore be expected to leave Stoke St Michael Primary reaching at least age-related expectations for History. We want to empower our pupils, so they become informed, inquisitive citizens of the world and make connections between past and current learning, demonstrating a solid grasp of historical concepts. They will be able to discuss significant periods, events, and figures with confidence. This is evidenced in a range of ways, including pupils’ voices, their work, and their overwhelming enjoyment of history.

EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World.’   Children concentrate on their immediate surroundings and living memory before transitioning to events beyond their own experiences. Children can talk about their own lives, and those of family members, in the past and present. Staff share historical objects, pictures, and stories to prompt discussion. Children use language related to time, such as “yesterday”, “past”, “now”, and “then”. Children are encouraged to ask questions, observe, and generate ideas and explore objects, photographs, books, and technology to learn about the past. Children will observe changes in the seasons, routines, and how things change over time and use photo cards or other resources to stimulate role play. We aim to enrich children’s learning with visits to local areas with historical significance. Children can learn about the lives of both men and women from the past.

Lessons are designed to support long-term memory through deliberate repetition of learning, reinforcing knowledge within the academic year and across multiple years.