History

Intent

At Ernesford Grange Primary School, the intention is that children gain a high-quality history education that will help pupils obtain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.

We are committed to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past through teaching and we strive to equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically; communicating these arguments to a range of audiences, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement.

Implementation

History is sometimes used as a topic focus for a half term, but we also aim to ensure that it is integrated into other areas of the curriculum and the basic skills are taught throughout the year through cross curricular work. Although our curriculum is topic based, we ensure history keeps its subject integrity.

Children have opportunities to experience a more hands- on approach to their learning, involving; artefacts, guest speakers and school trips in order to bring the history curriculum alive. To ensure clear progression of skills we use the Cornerstones skills and knowledge learning intention statements and Curriculum Maestro to plan and track history through Imaginative Learning and Knowledge Rich Projects.

Impact

Outcomes in ILP books, evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge.

At the end of each key stage, the children’s learning is assessed against the age-related expectation bands that are based on the 2014 National Curriculum statements for History. At Ernesford Grange, we use summative assessment to determine children’s understanding and inform teachers planning. This is reviewed on a termly basis by the subject leader, who monitors and oversees history.

KS1

Aims:
The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils know and understand:

1. Changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life.
2. Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries].
3. The lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell].
4. Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.

Lower KS2

Aims:
The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
2. Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
3. Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
4. Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
5. Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
6. Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Upper KS2

Aims:
The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
2. Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
3. Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
4. Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
5. Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
6. Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.