Intent
High-quality history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians. Our history curriculum is skills and knowledge rich. By learning a range of topics, children will have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, make connections and be able to communicate historically.
Our lessons inspire pupils’ curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by so doing, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving. The history curriculum at Cockfield makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the history of their locality. Children’s interests are pursued and pupil voice helps shape the curriculum.
Implementation
Our termly history teaching, allows children to build on their previous knowledge, so that the children can fully immerse themselves and have opportunities to reflect and build on prior learning. Our long term plan allows each class to develop their prior learning from the previous year. The key knowledge and skills that children acquire and develop throughout each block have been mapped to ensure progression between year groups throughout the school.
Our curriculum is laid out in such a way that the children initially learn about their immediate history: their family and location. Once this is consolidated, they gain a wider experience of global history. As a child moves through our school, their historical knowledge and understanding deepens and connections are made across history topics. The concepts that children explore are revisited in different units allowing children to apply new knowledge to the concept in order to prepare them for future learning and life.
Teachers and subject leaders look at ways to inspire pupils in History, by using quality teaching, texts, primary sources, visits and visitors to stimulate learning. This gives the learning a clear purpose and allows children to make connections as their learnt knowledge moves through the ages; motivating, and equipping them for historical learning and enquiry today and for their life beyond.
Impact
We use rigorous monitoring throughout the year to gauge the impact of the curriculum design. Senior leaders and subject leaders carefully monitor history: reviewing learning, evaluating pupil voice, providing individual feedback to move practice forward, celebrating positives and highlighting areas of development. Coverage and progress are accurately assessed through careful analysis of the application of skills as children move through the history curriculum. Children are taught to understand and use historical vocabulary, knowledge and skills across a variety of historical events in Britain and beyond. Children leave Cockfield Primary School with a love of history and the confidence and critical thinking skills to become historians of the future.
History in Early Years
History in the Early Years is covered in ‘Understanding the World’. It is introduced through activities that encourage every child to be curious, ask questions and talk about the world around them. In EYFS the early learning goals for History are centred on inspiring the children to show an interest in the lives of people familiar to them such as parents and grandparents through discussion. We support the children in the early years in exploring ways of preserving memories of special events through collecting photographs, making drawings and writing.
ELG: Past and Present
Talk about the lives of 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 being read in class and storytelling.