We CARE • Curiosity - Aspiration - Respect - Enthusiasm
We CARE • Curiosity - Aspiration - Respect - Enthusiasm
History
Intent
At Cholsey Primary School, our history curriculum is ambitious and thought provoking.
Each encounter with History education at Cholsey embodies the school’s four core principles of Curiosity, Aspiration, Respect and Enthusiasm. Our teaching is enquiry-based to engage and inspire curiosity about the past and other peoples, using local examples as well as intriguing stories and sources of evidence. We have chosen to focus on inspiring individuals and stories of human achievement in order to for our children to role-model aspiration in the real lived world. For example in Key Stage 1 children will learn about Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart and Mary Seacole. Our selection of topics is heavily biased in favour of showing similarities and differences between civilisations and also through time in order to develop respect for people who had varied ideas and ways of living. Finally, our approach to teaching history aims to instil enthusiasm through the variety of different activities, resources, experiences and questions which children encounter.
We follow the National Curriculum for history and our programme of study has been designed to ensure clear planning and progression through the year groups. We make full use of the resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling the children to develop a deep understanding of the history in their locality. For example, when studying Anglo Saxons, they might visit the local church or Wallingford to see historical remains.
Implementation
History is woven into our Whole School umbrella topics in a way that provokes an enquiry or point of view to be investigated building on previous learning. For example, our whole school topic of Through the Eyes looks at life in the past through different perspectives e.g. that of a War child in lower KS2 or as a Tudor vs Victorian child in UKS2. Our whole school topic of Lasting Landmarks allows children to learn about London landmarks and the effects of the Great Fire of London in KS1 and later in school they look at the landmarks of ancient civilisations like China and the Egyptians.
For each historical topic, teachers will have identified the key knowledge, skills and concepts that will allow the children to make progress across the school. Links are made with previous topics for example: How did life change from Romans times once the Anglo Saxons arrived?
Where possible planning remains flexible to allow the children to lead learning during a topic which builds upon their curiosity and interest. A high quality text can capture the interest from the start and great importance is given to the use of stories to bring historical periods to life.
Our aims and outcomes are supported by:
- Use of knowledge organisers to ensure key themes and language is covered.
- Skills progressions documents to ensure continuity across the school.
- A progression model that allows us to revisit key themes to deepen knowledge and extend learning.
- Use of exciting resources and where possible trips and visitors to enhance the learning.
- A learning environment that is designed to allow the children to learn more and remember more for example wall displays, timelines, Blogs.
A list of Historical Topics covered over our 2 year cycle can be found here.
Children dissecting “Viking poo” when investigating the diets of the Vikings!
Impact
Teachers work hard to ensure that gaps in understanding are plugged at the start of topics and careful questioning, low stakes quizzes and written & verbal evidence help us to ensure that our learning intentions are met.
