History

Intent - What do we want children to learn?

History should have an ever deepening knowledge of the past, respect for past traditions and cultures and an appreciation of how historians use their skills and expertise to make sense of past events. It is essential for children to have a greater understanding of the world around them. History is taught to help children understand the present in the context of the past, promoting their sense of chronology, making links between historical eras and concurrent events. We also want the children at Birchwood to emphasise with peoples of the past through a variety of learning activities, and to respect and celebrate differences. We also recognise that History as a subject can enrich others areas of the curriculum. The curriculum areas of study are taught by two areas of knowledge:

1) Substantive knowledge

Topic knowledge

To ensure that pupils understand events and societies in topic areas linked to the national curriculum in depth, Birchwood creates bespoke medium term planning outlines. This enables that content is carefully selected for emphasis and help newly learnt knowledge to be secured in children’s long-term memory.

Chronological knowledge

Pupils will secure an ever deepening chronological knowledge of historical eras in various ways that will be a narrative of the past. Pupils will learn about key events, places and people during a given period taught to build a mental timeline. Where appropriate in a teaching sequence, pupils will use timelines to place events in time order within a period or significant figures life. Pupils will be given opportunities to draw on prior learning of historical topics and when possible, make links between periods studied and concurrent narratives across time.

Substantive concepts

Pupils will be taught substantive concepts throughout every topic that the children are taught. It is crucial that these concepts are taught to children within topic areas to promote their understanding of historical eras studied. By regularly encountering concepts such as invasion, power or monarchy, children will have an ever increasing understanding of the meaning of a given concept and how that applies to their learning area. These concepts are taught contextually through different curriculum areas of historical content studied.

2) Disciplinary knowledge

This is about developing the pupils’ knowledge about the ways in which the knowledge of different historical periods are formed. This is done through pupils studying specific examples of how historians have analysed, constructed and presented their account of the past. Over time, pupils will develop an ever increasing understanding of how historians use evidence to form their interpretations of past events or significant historical figures. In every lesson, teachers will have an overarching enquiry question to help frame the new content taught and help pupils to shape this knowledge into historical analyses. Pupils will develop their understanding of the disciplinary traditions of history.

Second order concepts Historians traditionally operate under the following second order concepts:

 Sources and evidence

 Historical interpretations

 Cause and consequence

 Change and continuity

 Similarity and difference

 Historical significance

Pupils will be shown specific examples across topics of how historians have used evidence to make conclusions or judgements about why events occurred or the consequences of events. Pupils will also develop their understanding of how historians use sources of evidence to make claims, recognise similarities/differences and spot key markers of change and continuity during historical eras.

Implementation - How are we going to achieve our intent?

History topics are planned through the schools Wheel of Wisdom. Years 1/2, years 3/4 and years 5/6 study the same topic each term to give the opportunity for educational visits to enrich their learning and provide other learning opportunities. Humanities is taught weekly as a subject area, alternating half?termly between History and Geography. This is to facilitate children’s deeper understanding of a historical era studied. In a half-term where History is taught, Geography ‘flashbacks’ are used in class at the beginning of every lesson. This demands pupils recall of what they have learnt in the term and summarised learning from their prior year groups. History is taught weekly throughout KS1 and KS2. This is to facilitate building upon pupils’ prior learning and support recall of knowledge, skills and facts. In order to plan the implementation of the knowledge and skills required in History, the school has carefully put together knowledge organisers. These outline the key objectives intended to be covered in a given topic.

Wherever possible, a range of quality literary books are linked to their historical learning and children have opportunities to write in cross-curricular contexts, for example in English. Class teachers refer to Progression of skills grids (that reflect the National Curriculum programs of study) to ensure appropriate coverage across phases. Bespoke medium term outlines are produced for each historical topic area to ensure that intended knowledge that we want children to embed into their long?term memory is carefully selected.

Impact - What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?

There are literally hundreds of ways we can demonstrate the excellent impact our curriculum design has on our pupils. Teachers have high expectations of what all pupils can learn in History. The subject leader fosters a love of the subject through Historically themed assemblies such as national days – e.g St. Georges Day. As a school, we ensure that there are many opportunities to have vistors and go on visits to the rich local environments such as Framlingham Castle / Colchester Castle /WW2 walk with local MBE / Medieval re-enactment / Egyptian workshop.

Here are some examples that show how our we use our locality as part of our intended curriculum design:

Where ever possible we use physical and human resources that are bespoke to our school to enhance the teaching of humanities.  For example, when we teach “our Local Area,” and “World War 2,” we look directly at the rich geography and history on our doorstep.  Who was ‘Douglas Bader,’ and why was he so important locally?  We also do a field trip of the old world war 2 run way that is next to our school field and interview local residents who also lead a geography traverse and field trip of Martlesham Heath. Through the use of our local resources, children’s interest and enthusiasm is enhanced, as is their knowledge of the area in which they live.  Previously this has led to superb pupil achievements – eg one pupils’ WOW homework on the local area – ‘Martlesham Heath’ is now a published book in the British Museum!