Delph Primary School

The National Curriculum KS1 and KS2 History

Our History Curriculum

Intent
At Delph Primary School, we aim to ignite children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world while meeting the needs of all backgrounds, cultures and abilities. We aim to provide a history curriculum with appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum History Programme of study.
Our aim is for children:
- to develop knowledge and understanding of how the past influences the present, by developing effective research and analytical skills.
- to understand the way of life, cultures and respect for people from different times and places.
- to develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people.
-to foster enthusiasm and curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world.

We hope that this knowledge will help children to make more informed life choices and aspire to be open-minded citizens who make a valuable contribution to society.

Implementation

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability and additional needs, to flourish to become the very best they can be.

Our History curriculum is taught in the Autumn term and we use progression grids to ensure there is clear skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression throughout school. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. It is important that the children develop progressive skills of a historian throughout their time at Delph Primary School and do not just learn a series of facts about the past. Where appropriate we use historical artefacts, IT, visitors, workshops and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past, to evaluate information and evidence and reach their own conclusions.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World’. This aspect is about how children find out about past and present events in their own lives, their families and other people they know. Children are encouraged to develop a sense of change over time and are given opportunities to differentiate between past and present by for example observing routines throughout the day, observing the passing of seasons and time and looking at photographs of their life and of others. Investigative behaviour is encouraged through questions such as, ‘What do you think?', ‘Tell me more about?', 'What will happen if..?', ‘What else could we try?', ‘What could it be used for?' and ‘How might it work?' Use of language relating to time is used in daily routines and conversations with children for example, ‘yesterday', ‘old', ‘past', ‘now' and ‘then'.

In KS1, History begins by looking at the children’s own personal history and introduces them to the idea of chronology and timelines. Children will look at significant events and people who have shaped society, locally, nationally and globally.

In KS2, History is taught chronologically to allow children to confidently place each time period. This allows children to consistently build on previous knowledge and learning by placing previously taught History topics on a timeline. Each year group studies aspects of local history, a British history topic and an ancient history topic.

Cross-curricular links are planned for, with other subjects such as Maths, Writing and Computing.

We will use assessment for learning to ensure all lessons are relevant and will help to plan for next steps.

Subject leaders are given regular time to monitor the subject across the school, create action plans and to provide subject feedback to all staff as appropriate.

Impact

Through the high quality teaching of History taking place, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways.

Through pupil voice, children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more. Children will complete research independently through projects and home learning and to further their own enjoyment about the subject or topic.

Work will show that a range of topics are being covered, cross curricular links are made where possible and learning activities are adapted to suit different abilities as appropriate.

The school environment will be history rich through displays, resources, vocabulary etc.

As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in History will be high and will match standards in other subject areas.