History
Our Vision
Our school is one family, united in love and deeply rooted in our Christian values, where together on life’s journey we flourish, striving for excellence in all that we do. Inspired by the transformation of St Paul, and enlightened by the glory of God, we will shine like stars to make the world a better place.
Our Vision for History – understanding ourselves and our world through knowledge of our past
Our Curriculum Drivers
Our three curriculum drivers, Resilience, Independence and Aspiration shape our curriculum breadth. They are used to ensure we give our children appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities.
Intent
At St. Paul’s we believe that a high-quality history education will enable pupils to develop a better understanding of the world and communities in which they live. It should inspire their curiosity to know more about the past while equipping them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. This insight helps to build their cultural identity and foster respect for others linking to our curriculum driver Spirituality and its aim to develop an appreciation of what it means to be part of a community, an understanding of how that community has developed, the roots of our British values and an understanding of the importance of difference and diversity. Through the historical enquiry process of examining evidence, analysing and posing questions pupils are engaged and proactive in their learning, fostering independence and problem-solving skills linked to our driver of Growth. Pupils also learn that history is opinions, viewpoints and motives interwoven and enjoy deciphering historical ‘fact’, utilising skills from all curriculum areas.
Implementation
Our curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; three main principles underpin it:
- Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Interleaving helps students to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
- Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
In addition to the three principles, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short term and that sustained mastery takes time.
Our content is subject specific. History is taught as a discrete subject but opportunities for cross curricular work are identified where possible. We make intra-curricular links to strengthen schema. Continuous provision helps to provide retrieval practice for previously learned content. The school’s curriculum is planned and sequenced to cover the requirements of the National Curriculum and so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before, and towards our vision for our children as historians by the end of Year 6. The long-term plan (see below) has been designed around progression in the key areas of Chronological knowledge / understanding. Pupils become responsible for their own learning through open ended challenges and contextual activities. They understand that the enquiry process is about testing ideas and use evidence to justify or explain their reasoning. Pupils work collaboratively and supportively and are able to pose their own lines of enquiry, enabling the subject to become child-led and owned by the pupils. We aim to achieve this by developing planning and subject expertise, with access to interactive resources and artefacts, informed by current national expectations.
Teaching is based around three topics each year from the EYFS to Year 6, extending from the familiar and concrete to the less familiar and abstract. Pupils accumulate knowledge as they progress. As the children move through the school they will be encouraged to examine, in increasing depth, many forms of evidence, for example buildings, photographs, records, memories of older generations, museums, maps and books to further deepen their understanding of the world.
During Key Stage 1, for example, during Year 1’s study of the history of toys, children learn basic historical skills using artefacts to gain knowledge, extend their vocabulary and make comparisons through the concrete experience of familiar things. This then allows them to make meaningful comparisons with items from different time periods which is built on in Year 2.
During Key Stage 2, children build a chronological framework of developments in the history of Britain. This knowledge feeds into studies of different cultures and civilisations from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. Knowledge becomes both broader and deeper as pupils progress and become familiar with an ever-wider range of periods and cultures. This growing knowledge is also fed by enquiry and depth studies.
Use of Historical Association resources and other Web sites mean it can be easily adapted for remote teaching if necessary. We also use a variety of other resources to create a curriculum which is appropriate for our children, for instance making links with other subjects e.g.,Year 4’s study of the Anglo Saxons and Vikings in History links with their Geography topic on Scandinavia.
Impact
EYFS
Communication and language
Speaking: Children at the expected level of development will:
- Participate in small-group, class and one-to one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary.
- Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate; Teacher should be understood to refer to any practitioner working with the child.
- Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.
Understanding the world
Past and present: Children at the expected level of development will:
- Talk about the lives of the 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 read in class and storytelling.
By the age of 7 pupils should be able to:
Investigate and interpret the past
- Observe or handle evidence to ask questions and find answers to questions about the past.
- Ask questions such as:
- What was it like for people?
- What happened?
- How long ago?
- Identify some of the different ways the past has been represented.
- Use artefacts, pictures, stories, online sources and databases to find out about the past.
Build an overview of world history
- Describe historical events.
- Describe significant people from the past.
- Recognise that there are reasons why people in the past acted as they did.
Understand chronology
- Place events and artefacts in order on a timeline.
- Label timelines with words or phrases such as: past, present, older and newer.
- Use dates where appropriate.
- Recount changes that have occurred in their own lives.
Communicate historically
- Use words and phrases such as:
- a long time ago
- recently
- when my parents/carers were children
- years, decades and centuries to describe the passing of time.
- Show an understanding of concepts such as:
- nation and a nation’s history
- civilisation
- monarchy
- parliament
- democracy
- war and peace.
By the age of 9 pupils should be able to:
Investigate and interpret the past
- Use evidence to ask questions and find answers to questions about the past.
- Suggest suitable sources of evidence for historical enquiries.
- Use more than one source of evidence for historical enquiry in order to gain a more accurate understanding of history.
- Describe different accounts of a historical event, explaining some of the reasons why the accounts may differ.
- Suggest causes and consequences of some of the main events and changes in history.
Build an overview of world history
- Describe changes that have happened in the locality of the school throughout history.
- Give a broad overview of life in Britain: from ancient to medieval times.
- Compare some of the times studied with those of other areas of interest around the world.
- Describe the social, ethnic, cultural or religious diversity of past society.
- Describe the characteristic features of the past, including ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children.
Understand chronology
- Place events, artefacts and historical figures on a timeline using dates.
- Understand the concept of change over time, representing this, along with evidence, on a timeline.
- Use dates and terms to describe events.
Communicate historically
- Use appropriate historical vocabulary to communicate, including:
- dates
- time period
- era
- change
- chronology.
- Use literacy, numeracy and computing skills to a good standard in order to communicate information about the past.
By the age of 11 pupils should be able to:
Investigate and interpret the past
- Use sources of evidence to deduce information about the past.
- Select suitable sources of evidence, giving reasons for choices.
- Use sources of information to form testable hypotheses about the past.
- Seek out and analyse a wide range of evidence in order to justify claims about the past.
- Show an awareness of the concept of propaganda and how historians must understand the social context of evidence studied.
- Understand that no single source of evidence gives the full answer to questions about the past.
- Refine lines of enquiry as appropriate.
Build an overview of world history
- Identify continuity and change in the history of the locality of the school.
- Give a broad overview of life in Britain and some major events from the rest of the world.
- Compare some of the times studied with those of the other areas of interest around the world.
- Describe the social, ethnic, cultural or religious diversity of past society.
- Describe the characteristic features of the past, including ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children.
Understand chronology
- Describe the main changes in a period of history (using terms such as: social, religious, political, technological and cultural).
- Identify periods of rapid change in history and contrast them with times of relatively little change.
- Understand the concepts of continuity and change over time, representing them, along with evidence, on a timeline.
- Use dates and terms accurately in describing events.
Communicate historically
- Use appropriate historical vocabulary to communicate, including:
- dates
- time period
- era
- chronology
- continuity
- change
- century
- decade
- legacy.
- Use literacy, numeracy and computing skills to an exceptional standard in order to communicate information about the past.
- Use original ways to present information and ideas.