History

Intent

The History Curriculum at Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School draws from, and makes full use of, the immediate and wider local area, which is a celebrated and inspiring feature of Edgeley.  It has been designed so that our children have a secure knowledge and understanding of their own identity and our local context which will be developed through national and global history.  

We want our pupils to be able to think historically and use the appropriate language, vocabulary and grammar of History with confidence. We want them to investigate and explore History by asking questions and thinking critically about real life issues, from a variety of experiences. 

Through our curriculum design, children will develop a thirst for historical enquiry gaining primary order concepts leading to secondary order concepts where cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference and historical significance and interpretations are gained on past events. 

Implementation

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World’. This aspect is about how children find out about past and present events in their own lives, their families and other people they know. Children are encouraged to develop a sense of change over time and are given opportunities to differentiate between past and present by observing routines throughout the day, growing plants, observing the passing of seasons and time and looking at photographs of their life and of others. Practitioners encourage investigative behaviour and raise questions such as, ‘What do you think?', ‘Tell me more about?', 'What will happen if..?', ‘What else could we try?', ‘What could it be used for?' and ‘How might it work?' Use of language relating to time is used in daily routines and conversations with children for example, ‘yesterday', ‘old', ‘past', ‘now' and ‘then'. 

In both Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, we have thought carefully about the design of our History Curriculum. Our History curriculum is taught on a two-year cycle (Year A and Year B) and within phases (Years 1/2, Years 3/4 and Years 5/6).

We maintain strong links with the Stockport Normandy Veterans and every year there is a focus in the first term on the local lives lost in World War II with the support of the Veteran’s families. In addition to this, we support children’s learning of the local area through enrichment where children gain a deeper understanding of their rich cultural heritage.

In Year A, the first year of our History curriculum, all classes focus on the local area of Edgelely and Stockport and discover the unique history it has to offer. The curriculum then takes children to events that impacted the country nationally through work on the History of our school, events like the Gun Powder Plot whilst encompassing The Stone Age to Iron Age as well as Britain’s settlement of The Anglo- Saxons and The Vikings.

In Year B, the second year of the History curriculum, children's learning is taken further afield where in Key Stage One children learn about significant people and events through Explorers and Aviation whilst in Key Stage Two, children learn about The Egyptians, Islamic Civilisation, The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England as well as The Roman Empire

Concepts are taught using our bespoke Medium Term Planners that ensure Endpoints are covered in each Phase of the school. We have created Teacher Learning Groups (TLGs) to support staff with their planning which ensures all Endpoints and Progression Maps are covered. We use ‘Knowledge Organisers’ to map out each individual child’s learning and these outline the knowledge, key skills and historical vocabulary the children should master. 

We want our children to investigate and explore History by asking questions and thinking critically about real life issues, from a variety of experiences. The History Blocks have been selected to link primary or substantive concepts such as: Society, Institutions, Culture, Commerce, Politics, Agents of Change and Local Significance. If children encounter these regularly in History, it helps build up secure schema, better preparing pupils for new material.

In addition, learning is connected through second order or disciplinary concepts including: Cause and Consequence, Change and Continuity, Similarity and Difference, Historical Significance, Sources and Evidence, and Historical Interpretations. These help children to understand how historians have studied and analysed the past and how they have constructed and presented accounts of the past. 

Impact

The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Children will therefore be expected to leave Our Lady's Catholic Primary School reaching at least Age-Related Expectations for History.  The impact can be measured by the many different ways, including the scrutiny of children’s work/class book, formal and informal lesson observations, discussion with children (Pupil Voice), and displays. Outcomes and progress are tracked each year and monitored by the History Subject Leader. Feedback is given to all staff to facilitate professional development. Therefore, our children will be equipped with the historical vocabulary needed to enable them to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.

Files to Download