HISTORY- Mrs Elaine Goddard
‘’The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.’’
Theodore Roosevelt
How is the content chosen?
The National Curriculum is the core of our school history curriculum, but we have built upon this to ensure that it meets the needs of our children. History is taught through challenging and engaging discrete lessons, which give the children opportunities to develop and embed key historical knowledge. The way our curriculum is designed gives the children ample opportunities to revisit, reinforce and embed learning throughout a series of lessons, as well as across the year and into the next year.
How do we ensure progression of knowledge and skills?
Subject Leaders have communicated and worked with outside subject-specialists to ensure that we offer excellent progression throughout our school. As a result, we have designed a curriculum that is well sequenced and has appropriate content for specific year groups. It has been carefully selected and mapped out so that children are building upon prior knowledge each term and each year. Within these documents there are also opportunities for differentiation and adaptations, in order to meet the needs of all our children and personal cohort to our school. Teachers are clear on the learning and expectations for each year group.
How is history taught?
At Newton Hall Infants’ School our children start in Reception by learning through activities related to class books (fiction and no-fiction); which allows them to start to learn and use historical language, then talk about and discuss similarities and differences in their own lives and the lives of those closest to them. In Key Stage 1 the children are taught discrete history lessons where they learn about their own lives, building backwards in time to extend their chronology. Within each history lesson, the children are introduced to and reminded of key vocabulary. Questioning is used to check their understanding and prior knowledge, before new concepts, skills or knowledge are introduced. The children are then given opportunities to consolidate, build upon and apply basic skills and knowledge, across a series of lessons, as well as across the year.
History books are used in each class to record experiences and learning. These books travel through school with the children as a working document of what they have discovered and how they have evolved. There are links and opportunities that arise from other subject areas and these are incorporated where possible and appropriate.
How is history taught in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)?
At Newton Hall Infants’ School we aim to build on the wealth of knowledge and skills children already have when they arrive. We recognise that all children are unique, celebrating and welcoming differences within our school community. Therefore, our curriculum is child centred following the interests and fascinations of the children in the current year group. In history children will look at their lives and the lives of those closest to them. They describe special events and we aim for them to use past, present and future forms accurately when doing so. Books and stories are used as a way to introduce history topics and act as a stimulus for the children when comparing similarities and differences. As well as topic work and the teaching of valuable knowledge, children in EYFS are given the opportunity to continually practise and embed their skills through the areas of provision set up in the indoor and outdoor learning environments.
How do we know children are making progress?
Ongoing assessments of the children’s knowledge and skills are observed daily by the class teacher. Misconceptions are addressed and next steps carefully planned. Children’s outcomes are compared to the subject specific skills and knowledge documents, as well as the year group expectations from the National Curriculum. Senior leaders and subject leaders gather an overview of children’s learning and outcomes through monitoring activities and pupil voice sessions. Regular assessments are collated for children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 which are used to plan appropriate next steps for their future learning, as well as provide an overview of learning within a subject area across the whole school.
Impact of our geography teaching
At Newton Hall Infants school, we aim to develop an understanding of life and changes in the past and how that affected the children’s lives. Our ambition is to foster an interest in the past, arousing curiosity and motivation to learn. We intend develop the children’s sense of chronology, starting from recent moving backwards to the distant past.
