History
Intent:
At Marton-cum-Grafton Primary School, we aim to help pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world; ensuring the progressive development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills; and for the children to develop a love for history. Furthermore, we aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about history that will remain with them for the rest of their lives, equipping them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement. (The 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England).
Implementation:
- An enquiry-based approach with real life learning opportunities is driven by high quality questioning. Progressive continuum of skills and higher order questioning challenges and engages all pupils.
- We teach the National Curriculum, supported by clear skills and knowledge progression.
- Pupils find evidence, weigh it up and reach for their own conclusion. To do this successfully, as historians, they need to be able to research, interpret evidence, including primary and secondary sources, and have the necessary skills to put across their point of view; skill which will help them in their adult life.
- We provide a variety of curriculum enrichment experiences through educational visits, trips and workshops linked to the topics covered, for each year group. This enables our children to experience a rich variety of 'hands-on' learning, access to heritage sites and expert historians.
EYFS
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 observing routines throughout the day, growing plants, observing the passing of seasons and time and looking at photographs of their life and of others. Practitioners encourage investigative behaviour and raise 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'.
Impact:
By the time the children leave our school, they should have developed:
A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
The ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detail, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of topics.
