History

Intention

At Priorslee Academy, history has always been held in high regard. The history curriculum at Priorslee makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality, Great Britain and the wider world.

In line with the National Curriculum 2014, Priorslee Primary aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world which helps to stimulate pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.
  • Are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
  • Begin to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Implementation

History is taught using themes throughout the year so that children can achieve a deep understanding in an immersive, cross curricular curriculum. The history curriculum at Priorslee Primary is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy. The curriculum is delivered in chronological order separately in Key Stage 1, and then again in Key Stage 2 to ensure that children’s chronology skills are constantly developed throughout the entirety of their school life.

Emphasis is placed on analytical thinking, source enquiry and questioning which helps pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. At the start of each term the children are provided with artefact boxes to excite them about their new topics and allow them to further enhance their source enquiry skills.

Heritage projects provide further relevant and contextual learning, engaging members of the community and providing positive role models for children to learn from. This is particularly evident in year 5 when the children focus on their heritage project of coal mining in the locality. The school is a recognised ‘Heritage School’ through its ongoing collaboration and links with Historic England.

Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group. By the end of year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Mayans.

Planning is informed by and aligned with the national curriculum. Consideration is given to how ‘greater depth’ will be taught as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. ‘Greater depth’ pupils are provided with differentiated questions through lesson delivery which focus on a combination of different skills. SEN pupils and those that struggle to access the history curriculum will receive adult support or will work in group contexts during lessons to scaffold their history learning.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS):

Follows the ‘Early Years Outcomes’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘understanding of the world; people and communities, and the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.

In Key Stage 1

Pupils are taught:

  • Enquiry: To compare their life to significant people from the past and to find similarities and differences between the events of the past.
  • Investigating and Interpreting the past: To explore photographs, artefacts and simple text to make comparisons.
  • Chronology: To place events in chorological order on a timeline, including artefacts, words, phrases and dates.
  • Making connections: To link changes in living memory to changes in national life.
  • Communicate historically: To use simple historical words and phrases to answer questions.

In Key Stage 2

Pupils are taught:

  • Enquiry: To explain the significance of events and clarify similarities and differences between cultural, social and religious aspects of a period.
  • Investigating and interpreting the past: Explore different interpretations of the past through the impact of contrasting sources from the same time.
  • Chronology: 1. To demonstrate a deep understanding of the chronology of a series of events on a timeline and explain the impact of one event upon another. 2. To use dates and terms accurately in describing events.
  • Making connections: To discern between past periods of time and societies analysing trends.
  • Communicate historically: To use historical vocabulary to ask and answer valid questions and to pursue lines of enquiry.

 Impact

We hope that Priorslee pupils have enjoyed learning about the heritage of their local area and the past in general. We hope children finish their time with us at Priorslee with the skills to unpick historical periods or events. We hope some children will continue to develop their curiosity of the past and others will use their historical knowledge to support them in further education.

Assessment

We assess pupil’s knowledge and enjoyment of the subject through:

  • Book moderation
  • Lesson observation (learning walks)
  • Pupil discussion
  • Assessment against planned learning outcomes.

Outcomes of work are regularly monitored by the Subject Leader to ensure that they reflect a sound understanding of the key identified knowledge.

Dream

Priorslee will aim to involve each year group in an immersion day at least once a year for one of the history topics that they are studying. During these immersion days classrooms could be converted into different environments enabling pupils to enact key moments in history such as the Blitz and being evacuees. The immersion days are designed to maximise their learning experiences and create memorable learning opportunities.

The days will be planned in conjunction with the pupils’ own ideas about what they would like to gain from their immersion day. This will create a sense of empowerment and ownership which will allow pupils to better engage with their history learning. The immersion days could involve an exterior workshop coming in to visit or pupils could dress up and role play a particular time period of history. The immersion days could also take place via an exterior school trip.

Sensory learning is crucial to ensure a memorable and successful immersion day, so year groups might even choose to play historical sound effects in the classroom, such as the WWII air raid siren, or they might choose to make and taste specific food recipes from the chosen time period of history.