Intent
At Highwood Primary School, we want our pupils to explore a range of significant historical periods, both in Britain and in civilisations around the world. They will learn about the lives and achievements of important individuals in the past, allowing them understand the historical context in which to place the past, the present and the future. They will take part in enjoyable and memorable learning experiences, which help them develop a curiosity about the local and wider world and to understand how it came to be this way. We encourage pupils to make connections, compare and contrast, draw conclusions, and ask perceptive questions in their journey of becoming inquisitive historians through providing an inspiring curriculum. We aim to:
1. Cultivate a deep understanding of chronology, helping students to recognise and place various historical periods in context.
2. Foster skills in historical enquiry and critical thinking, enabling students to ask perceptive questions and develop informed opinions.
3. Enrich pupils’ vocabulary and oracy, ensuring they can articulate their understanding confidently.
Implementation
At Highwood Primary School, we ensure that our history planning follows a clear progression of skills and ensures that there is full coverage of, ‘The National Curriculum programmes of study for History 2014’. The curriculum is adapted and extended to match all pupils’ needs and builds upon their prior knowledge and skills. Where possible, History is linked to other subjects to support children in developing links between subject areas. History is taught as discrete units and lessons where needed to ensure coverage.
Before teaching each unit teachers will:
- Create a Big Question, which the pupils will answer throughout the unit.
- Assess children’s prior knowledge and skills at the start of every lesson and use this to ensure their planning builds upon this.
- Plan opportunities to develop enquiry skills by asking historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and the significance of events.
- Plan for key vocabulary to be discretely taught throughout the unit.
- Plan opportunities for developing oracy and create sentence stems to support this.
During each unit teachers will:
- Ensure each lesson has learning objective that pupils will be able to achieve through their work and will help them answer the Big Question.
- Refer to classroom timelines at the start of each lesson to develop children’s understanding of chronology. Each topic is introduced with reference to the chronology of previous topics (including those from previous years).
- Give pupils the opportunity to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Egyptians.
- Give pupils the opportunity to understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
- Study key historical figures and consider and analyse their lasting impact.
- Provide pupils with mini knowledge organisers for each lesson to provide key information they will need to refer back to, as well as key vocabulary and sentence stems for the lesson.
- Develop the pupil’s use of historical language highlighting new vocabulary to pupils and displaying it in the classroom for them to use in future lessons.
- Provide pupils with opportunities to make links and use knowledge from other subjects, in particular extended writing opportunities.
- Provide pupils with opportunities develop their enquiry through analysing primary and secondary sources.
- Give opportunities for pupils to recall prior knowledge from previous lessons and units.
At the end of each unit pupils will:
- Take part in low-stakes retrieval activities to demonstrate the knowledge they have learnt.
- Self-assess their understanding of the unit and reflect on the historical skills they have used and reflect on this.
After each unit teachers will:
- Asses pupils’ understanding and knowledge of the unit in order to inform planning for future units, recording any pupils who may need additional support, such as pre-teaching or retrieval practise prior to the next unit.
Progression Documents
Impact
What will this look like?
Through pupil voice we will see:
- Pupils explain the chronology of History, identifying significant events and their impact on the world.
- Pupils make links across History knowledge that they have learnt in their time at Highwood.
- Pupils express their passion for History by talking enthusiastically about their learning and sharing their knowledge and understanding.
- Pupils using Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary when discussing their learning.
Through learning walks we will see:
- Pupils engagement with sources and asking historical enquiry questions.
- Pupils demonstrating their love of History through their high levels of engagement.
- Pupils discussing their learning and explaining how it links to previous lessons.
- A clear sequence of lessons that allow pupils to acquire knowledge.
- Teachers modelling the use of Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary and sentence stems to aid pupils’ oracy.
In the pupil’s learning we will see:
- Pupils describing how past events have affected our present lives.
- Pupils using Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary in their written work to demonstrate their knowledge.
- Evaluation of sources taking into account historical bias and make reasoned judgements.
- Pupils taking pride in their learning and present work of a high standard.
- Pupils using knowledge and skills from other subjects to support their learning.
- Scaffolded activities that allow all pupils, including SEND and disadvantaged learners, to make progress and reach their potential.
- A clear sequence of lessons that are linked to the big question.
