History
History Curriculum Intent
At Stillness Infant School our ambitious history curriculum provides our children with a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire children’s curiosity to know more about the past and to think and act as historians. We make full use of many resources within our immediate and wider local area, enabling children to develop an understanding of the history of their locality.
The Importance of History
History fires pupils’ curiosity about the past and the wider world. Children will consider how the past can influence the present as well as the future. It develops a chronological framework for children’s knowledge of significant events and people. They see the diversity of human experience and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society.
Teachers are responsible for the implementation of history effectively and to assist pupils to:
- Develop chronological understanding of periods of time
- Increase knowledge and understanding of key events
- Know about famous people who have influenced the course of history
- Recognise that the past is represented and interpreted in different ways
- Be able to use a range of sources to select and record relevant information
- Develop a range of skills necessary to communicate their knowledge and understanding.
History Curriculum Implementation
- Through our inclusive and challenging history curriculum, we support all children to acquire the knowledge and cultural capital they need for future success. Each term a new unit is taught it is signposted using a new topic cover in the child’s writing book with a unifying question. Teachers plan the unit of work starting from the unifying question at the end of the topic. Lessons are then designed around the unifying question in a progressive and sequential manner each week so that knowledge is then built up week by week to move through the aspect of history being covered. This enables children to be able to call upon the vocabulary, skills and subject knowledge taught during the unit in order to answer the unifying question through writing, design or presentation. The knowledge organiser that accompanies each unit makes the expectations of what must be known by every child clear and these guide teacher’s planning and help ensure lessons are progressive & sequential and vocabulary rich.
- Our History curriculum will follow a clear and consistent teaching sequence from EYFS to the end of Key Stage 1 which ensures that our children gain a rich and wide range of skills and knowledge, effectively built on year by year. Topics are carefully designed so learning is revisited and deepened, and used as a basis to acquire new learning, for example, our Y1 topic ‘Turrets and Tiaras’ provides our children with a firm foundation upon which to acquire new learning in Y2 on ‘Crystal Palaces’.
- Through our history curriculum, children will compare the lives of some famous historical people and understand their importance in shaping our world today. We have chosen people to reflect the diversity of our community and our capital city of London, for example, comparing architect Sir Joseph Paxton with modern day architect Sir David Adjaye.
- At Stillness Infants, children begin to understand history terms and learn a rich vocabulary which helps them to develop their history skills, including understanding and using different sources to find out about a period of time, for example artefacts, historical sites, photographs, images, and some written sources to find out about people and events in history.
- We want children to enjoy and love learning about history by gaining the knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits, for example, in our Y2 ‘Fire, Fire’ topic the children are immersed in the topic with a school workshop and a visit to London to see the Monument, Pudding Lane, and the Tower of London. We aim to bring the learning to life and make it exciting by providing motivating rich first-hand experiences. Our wide range of topics give children the opportunity to learn about our local history, British history, and the history of the wider world.
- A wide variety of subject specific fiction and non-fiction books are shared with the children in history and English lessons, and in the class book area. Regular reading across the history topics is prioritised to embed new vocabulary and give children further opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past.
- At the start of each lesson, teachers frequently draw upon the important content and vocabulary defined in the topic’s Knowledge Organisers to allow regular retrieval opportunities in order to embed subject knowledge. We provide varied lessons both in presentation and outcome to allow students to fully engage with the subject. Lessons can include: paired and/or activities, role play and drama, practical tasks such as playing with toys from the past, written outcomes. All lessons use materials for teaching which avoid stereotyping, and bias towards race, gender, role or disability.
- Due to our immersive topic structure, children are able to produce a variety of writing outcomes utilising a range of genres to effectively demonstrate their knowledge, such as newspaper reports, poetry and leaflets.
- To support children’s learning and to ignite curiosity and engagement with the topic in class, children are exposed to creative displays, vocabulary rich working walls and topic books.
- Throughout each unit, Stillness Infants School encourages the interest and participation of parents/carers and other members of the community into the life of the school by inviting visitors in and directing activities which can be accessed at home.
