History

History forms an important part of our curriculum. At King Edward Primary we follow the National Curriculum and embrace a broad-spectrum of stimulating topics. As a school we aim to wholly develop each child's historical skills, understanding and knowledge. Consequently, our lessons are well planned, highly engaging and challenge all abilities. Other curriculum areas are incorporated into learning to ensure high levels of motivation and interest from the children.

Intent:

At Thorne King Edward we believe that developing an awareness of the past helps pupils to understand more about themselves and the world around them. The History curriculum at King Edward Primary has been developed so that children understand the history of Britain as a chronological narrative, understanding how people’s lives have shaped it and the influence from the wider world. Significant aspects of history of the wider world are also studied, including empires and ancient civilisations. Our curriculum additionally allows children to investigate past events and, by doing so helps to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.

At King Edward Primary we develop the children’s understanding of historical vocabulary and ensure they use the correct words and phrases related to the passing of time. We teach children about people and events in the past and ensure they understand where they fit within a chronological framework. They identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They will become confident in finding out their answers to questions through a range of different sources. They will learn to represent their findings in different ways.
The History curriculum takes into account our school’s policy for equal opportunities and is delivered without bias regarding race, gender, culture or ability.

Implementation

History at Thorne King Edward is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth within their learning; each block lasts for eight weeks. Within our curriculum we have identified the key knowledge and skills of each area of history and consideration has been given to ensure progression across these areas throughout each year group, and that this is built on in future years. Further information of the key themes studied, when they are undertaken, as well as the progression across year groups, can be found in the documents below.
By the end of year 6, children will have historical understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. New historical vocabulary is present throughout all teaching of history. In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout our school. The children start to learn about the modern world and their own community. This moves onto learning about the significant historical events and people in British and International history, including in their own locality.
History is also taught across the curriculum and will feature throughout the year within other subjects, especially geography, and one of the themes undertaken each year is a joint geography/history theme. The local area is also fully utilised to support children in achieving the expected outcomes, with extensive opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice. Our children are provided with as many opportunities as possible for learning outside the classroom, benefiting their educational, social, physical and emotional development; we have a comprehensive visits programme which supports the development of cultural capital and this plays a major role in supporting the history curriculum - details of this can be found in the King Edward Offer. We ensure history is taught through lessons, such as reading, so children gain the important skills needed; in particular through non-fiction texts.
Planning is informed by and aligned with the National Curriculum. Consideration is given to how key knowledge will be taught, learnt and demonstrated within each lesson, as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. Outcomes of work are regularly monitored to ensure that they reflect a sound understanding of the key identified knowledge.
Following the completion of the unit of work assessments will be completed for all children, and this data is analysed to improve the children’s learning in history.

Impact:

Through the high quality first teaching of History at King Edward we will see the impact of the subject in a variety of ways. Firstly, through pupil voice, our children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will also be engaged in History lessons and eager to find out more. Additionally, learning will show that a range of topics will be covered, cross curricular links are made where possible and learning will be differentiated when appropriate.
The history curriculum helps ensure our children have overcome the vocabulary deficit by exposing students to vocabulary which helps them to make sense of their world and supports their reading development.
The school environment at King Edward will be history rich through current topic displays; resources used in the classrooms and vocabulary. Topic books will also demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. As historians, children will demonstrate a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, in addition to being curious to know more about the past.
Assessments and monitoring will show standards within history will be up to a high quality and will match outcomes in other subject areas.