History
"History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future."
Robert Penn Warren
At Stanton Road, we want our children to think and act as historians and have a rich schema of historical knowledge, which helps them to understand that history is the narrative of the past and that they are the characters in the narrative of shaping the future. We always strive to inspire children’s curiosity to know more about the past, and to investigate how events in history have had an impact on their lives today. Through our history curriculum, children gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of local history, Britain’s past and the history of the wider world through the understanding of key concepts and enquiry questions.
Children’s curiosity about what has come before them and how it has shaped current societies will be built upon and sources of information will be used to develop skills in examining and interpreting evidence, thinking critically, asking perceptive questions, sifting arguments and developing perspective and judgement. Focus vocabulary will support children to articulate their thoughts coherently and powerfully.
The history curriculum at Stanton Road, will provide children with clear and comprehensive lessons, so that they understand history as a chronological narrative from ancient times to the present day. History will help our children to understand the complexity of people's lives, the process of change, the diverse societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Children will learn about how people from the past have influenced and shaped the country in which we live, they will learn to value diversity and will explore democracy and the rule of law across various periods of history.
The history curriculum at Stanton Road is taught focusing on the knowledge and disciplinary concepts outlined in the National Curriculum and is sequenced to ensure there is clear progression in knowledge, vocabulary and skills across the school, starting in F2, looking at past and present.F2 children will think about and share memories from their own past, read stories about changes, role-play special events in continuous provision and talk about their day and week.
Key substantive concepts explored in our History curriculum are ‘empire’, ‘society’ and ‘leadership and kingdom’. Key concepts are revisited to ensure retention of knowledge and to build historical schema by making connections across different time periods. Staff will model subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning and will make links to prior learning to aid the integration of new knowledge. Key knowledge is reviewed by the children and rigorously checked and consolidated by the teacher. All learning will start with retrieval and by revisiting prior knowledge. Teachers will assess whether knowledge from prior units of study has been retained or whether previous concepts need to be consolidated before new learning takes place.
Within a sequence of History lessons, children take will participate in both collaborative and independent activities. At the end of a unit of work, children then use this accumulative knowledge to complete an end of unit quiz. During lessons, we use assessment for learning to ensure that we are able to plan for next steps. Teachers cater for the varying needs of all learners, differentiating activities as appropriate, and ensuring a suitable level of challenge.
At the beginning of each history unit, teachers refer to classroom timelines to develop children’s understanding of chronology and make reference to the chronology of previous areas of study (including those from previous years). By the end of Year 6, children have a good chronological understanding of local, British and world history. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Where appropriate, historical artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits are used to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past.
At Stanton Road, children have the opportunity to record their learning in a variety of ways, which is recorded within their history books. Evidence of the learning is dependent on the lesson outcome, year group and the knowledge and skills being developed. This can be in the form of extended writing, photographs of practical activities, historical timelines and speech bubble comments relating to the learning.
Assessment
Teachers assess children’s learning throughout each lesson to ensure understanding of skills and knowledge before building onto future learning. Teachers use a range of questioning and retrieval practice to assess children against the aims of the lesson. In addition, children will also complete end point assessments at the end of each unit to assess their substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
Curriculum Champions
Our curriculum champion will conduct regular evaluations of our History Curriculum, which include lesson drop ins, pupil panels and book looks to measure the impact of our teaching, by assessing whether our children know more and can remember more.