History
The teaching of History at Pool Hayes Primary is underpinned by the ongoing development and acquisition of knowledge and skills. This development and acquisition occurs as a result of our own school’s curriculum sequence and progression, which maps out the core knowledge and skills children need to be highly effective geographers. This is supported by the use of the Grammarsaurus scheme of learning.Intent
At Pool Hayes Primary we value history as it provides an opportunity to deepen our understanding of significant events. As a school we are passionate and enthusiastic about teaching the history curriculum. At Pool Hayes Primary School we want out pupils to have coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past. Our pupils will explore the past and develop both their understanding and historical curiosity. Our pupils will learn about a range of significant periods of history through accurate historical enquiries. Our curriculum will encourage children to explore topics in depth and gain a deeper understanding. We will accomplish this through: thoughtful discussions, questioning and analysis, trips, themed days, visitors and quality first teaching.
The early years foundation stage aims to ensure that all pupils:
Impact
· Begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history.
· Comment on images of familiar situations in the past.
· Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past.
· Talk about the lives of people around them and their roles in society.
· Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class.
· Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now.
The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:
· 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
· 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
· gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
· 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
· 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
Implementation
At Pool Hayes Primary, Geography activities are planned, so that they build upon the prior learning of the children. While there are opportunities for children of all abilities to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in each activity area, there is planned progression built into the scheme of work, so that the children are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school.
Geography at PHP focuses on the acquisition of new knowledge and building on prior learning relating to:
Taught discretely
Children learn about a range of topics throughout their time at Pool Hayes Primary School. It is important that the children understand the chronological order of the historical events.
Local links
As a school, we try and link our local historical events into the topics we are studying e.g. when we learnt about monarchs we looked at the Boscobel tree.
Cross Curricular links
Children have lots of opportunity to apply skills that they have been taught in other curriculum areas, e.g. a piece of writing related to the topic they are currently studying or creating a piece of artwork in the style of an artist that is linked to the topic
Showcasing our achievements
As a school, we celebrate our historical achievements in a range of ways. We often have examples of work on our displays around the school, take photographs and we share examples with parents on Class Dojo.
Trips/visitors/inspire workshops/themed days
· As a school, we try and plan exciting and informative trips or invite visitors into our school. This helps the children to understand events in a different light e.g. when studied Ancient Greece we visited the Birmingham Art Museum.
· Every year, each class holds an inspire workshop where the parents come into school and help us create masterpieces with the children based on their topic. These workshops are often creative activities and the parents participate with their children. A recent inspire workshop we have had was when the parents and children created weaponry during the Ancient Greece topic. We also have themed days to celebrate historical events.
PUPIL VOICE
Through discussion and feedback, children talk enthusiastically about their history topics. They are able to recall their favourite lessons and the topics they have studied. Children speak knowledgably about their history lessons and enjoy learning about the past.
EVIDENCE IN KNOWLEDGE
· Pupils can demonstrate their understanding.
· Pupils can make links between the different themes and recognise the similarities and differences.
· Pupils know about key events and people.
· Pupils build their overview of the past throughout their time at Pool Hayes Primary School
EVIDENCE IN SKILLS
· Pupils can order significant events chronologically.
· Pupils use key vocabulary to explain their understanding of the past.
· Pupils can analyse, interpret and reflect on information.
· At the end of each year we expect the children to have achieved age related expectations for their year group.
· Some children will have progressed further and achieved greater depth.
· Children who have gaps in their knowledge receive appropriate support and intervention.
· History lessons create reflective and inquisitive learners.
· Pupils will develop an understanding of a range of periods throughout history.
· By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. Furthermore, each history unit has a unit quiz and knowledge catcher, which can be used at the start or end of the unit to assess children’s understanding. Opportunities for children to present their findings using their geographical skills will also form part of the assessment process in each unit.
Supporting children with SEN
Whilst our curriculum here at PHP is very much designed to meet the needs of all of our children, we also recognise that some children may need some additional support to access it, and this is factored in to our planning and the delivery of lessons. Our curriculum is highly inclusive and all groups of children are supported to access all areas successfully, this includes those children who have a special educational need and/or disability or who are deemed to be disadvantaged or vulnerable in any way.
