History
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24
Just as the wise builder chose to build his house on solid foundations, so a well-lived, successful life requires solid foundations. Through our curriculum, we aim to give our children the knowledge and skills – the foundations - they need to become fulfilled, successful, loving adults in their world.
Intent, Implementation and Impact – History curriculum
Intent
At Netheravon All Saints we know that History is a fascinating subject, and it is our aim to instil a love and appreciation of History in all our children. We recognise that, as historians, we need to understand how one element of the past influenced another, and how these have impacted our lives today, both at local and wider level. In order to be effective historians, we need to be curious, have the skills to find answers to our questions and be able to make links and build on prior knowledge. We want our children to be curious about their local area, and to understand how the lives of people in our rural locality and beyond have changed over time. Therefore our curriculum is intended to both develop the skills of historical enquiry as children progress through our school, and to provide a relevant and secure depth of knowledge.
Implementation
We use the Kapow history scheme to support the history curriculum. The curriculum has been carefully built and the learning opportunities for each year group crafted to ensure progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.
- Our History curriculum is taught explicitly from Year 1 through to Year 6. Topics in Years 1 and 2 provide a basis for understanding chronology, contrasting one focus area between two different periods, and understanding history in the context of our immediate village, locality and experiences. History objectives are met in Early Years through a cross-curricular, immersive approach to ‘Understanding our World’.
- History units are taught with reference to prior knowledge and experience. This is encapsulated in our Knowledge Organisers. Thematic links are made explicit and built upon, so that a clear progression in knowledge and understanding can be traced through the year groups. Our themes are selected based on our context e.g. belief links to our status as a church school, and the building upon knowledge relating to the World Wars links to our location on Salisbury Plain and our military community.
- Key vocabulary is identified for each unit taught and is presented on the Knowledge Organiser. These words are explicitly taught during the learning sequence, and teachers and pupils continually assess understanding of these.
- Historical skills are consolidated and built upon through each unit and year group. Our History long-term plan supports teachers in planning each learning sequence, and our skills progression plan ensures the development of the skills of historical enquiry.
Less able pupils are provided with appropriate support and more able pupils are further challenged based on assessment for learning, to ensure the needs of all learners are met.
Impact
Through the high quality first teaching of History taking place, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways:
- Through pupil voice children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more. Children will complete research independently through projects and homework and to further their own enjoyment about the subject or topic.
- Work in books will show that a range of topics is being covered, cross curricular links are made where possible and differentiated work set as appropriate.
- The school environment will be history rich through displays, resources, vocabulary etc.
- As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in History will be high and will match standards in other subject areas.
As our Year 6 pupils transition to secondary school, we aspire that they will have developed a historical mind of inquiry. Pupils will also have a strong chronological understanding of historical events, making connection between their influence on the past and their potential influence on future events.
Reviewed January 2024
