History

History at St Anne’s School

Subject Leader - Miss L Peel

“With Christ in our hearts we live life to the full.”

INTENT

As a school of Culture, Creativity and Curiosity, we aim to deliver a history curriculum that is child centred and that will develop and equip our pupils to ask questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.  

Our aim is that, through our curriculum, we instil a love of history in all our children. We aim to provide interesting and varied learning opportunities that interest, intrigue and stimulate all children’s interest and understanding about the lives of people and societies who lived in the past. We teach children a sense of chronology, in order to develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. We aim for the children to have an understanding of historical concepts such as change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance.

We aim to make all children aware of the actions of important people in history and enable children to know about significant events in British history, whilst appreciating how things have changed over time. History will also ensure our children understand how Britain developed as a society, contributing to their understanding of their country of residence. Furthermore, our children will learn about aspects of local, British and Ancient history. This wider awareness leads to the children having some knowledge of historical development in the wider world. We believe that by allowing the children to understand the importance and enjoyment of history through different opportunities, they will become enthused learners in history. 

Throughout their journey at St Anne’s, pupils will: develop an extensive historical knowledge of significant events in British, European and world history; develop a secure understanding of key historical vocabulary; have an increased awareness and sequential understanding of the past with a sense of chronology and time.

Finally, they will be given the opportunity to understand with awe and wonder the links between local, regional, national and international history through the exciting first-hand experiences that we will give our children.

IMPLEMENTATION

The history programme of study at St Anne’s follows the National Curriculum which has been broken down to ensure both progression and coverage across Key Stage 1 and 2.  

The teaching, learning and sequencing of the curriculum follows:  

• A progression of skills with each year group, which enables pupils to build on and develop their skills each year.

•  Each theme will be taught explicitly through exciting topics, including links to other areas of the curriculum and whole school vision.

• History is taught as a half-termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum, to build an in-depth knowledge about a particular period in history, or understand how an aspect of life has changed through time. 

• A teaching sequence that builds knowledge and skills and concludes with a reflection and assessment of that knowledge. 

• In KS1, pupils are introduced to learning about changes in living memory and beyond living memory, by learning about the lives of significant people of the past, understand the methods of historical enquiry and beginning to ask and answer questions about the past.

• In Lower KS2, pupils learn about the history of Britain from the Stone Age to Romans, creating a timeline into and around which a wider range of topics such as Mayan civilisation and WWII are placed in Upper KS2.

• In order 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.

• Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details 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.

 Effective CPD opportunities are available to staff to ensure their confidence, skills and knowledge are developed to teach the skills confidently and accurately. 

Our curriculum provides a coherent sequence of learning and coverage of the National Curriculum and key geographical skills needed for our learners to develop to their full potential.

History Curriculum Document, detailing knowledge and lessons taught

History Curriculum Map

History Skills Document

 As a 'School of Culture, Creativity and Curiosity' we place an emphasis on providing ‘real life’ experiences for all our children, so they are able to enrich and enhance their learning experiences and develop their own historical skills. We therefore run visits to places of historical significance, both locally, nationally and internationally.

IMPACT 

By the end of their time at St Anne's we want our children to:

•  be aware that they are learning history in their lessons.

• have a  secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.

• have the ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.

• have the ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.

• have a passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.

• to be able to make links between our local, national and worldwide history.

• to retain the knowledge of the historical topics they have studied.

• to feel prepared for the next stage of their history education and part of their adult life.