history curriculum information
Curriculum information
intent
At Lakefield Church of England Primary School, our intent is to give every child a broad and balanced history curriculum which enables them to confidently explore and discover what is around them, so that they have a deeper understanding of the world we live in. Our aim is to provide stimulating and challenging experiences that help every child secure and extend their historical knowledge and vocabulary, as well as promoting a love and thirst for learning. At Lakefield, we have a coherently planned and sequenced curriculum which has been carefully designed and developed with the needs of every child at the centre of what we do. We want to equip our children with not only the minimum statutory requirements of the history National Curriculum but to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of later life.
implementation
At Lakefield, History topics are taught within each year group in accordance with the National Curriculum.
- Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
- Every year group will build upon the learning from prior year groups therefore developing depth of understanding and progression of skills and knowledge.
- Teachers promote enjoyment and foster interest of the historical disciplines
- Children present their findings and learning using history specific language
- To support children in their ability to ‘know more and remember more’ there are regular opportunities to review the learning taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
- At the start of each topic children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic
- Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details some key History Curriculum Statement information and vocabulary. This is used to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and are used as a reference document.
- To support teaching, teachers access a range of resources and planning. The main body of planning is provided but adapted by the Teacher to make the curriculum a Lakefield curriculum ensuring our drivers are present throughout.
- Effective use of education visits and visitors are planned, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experiences within the History curriculum.
- Teachers use effective assessment for learning in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed.
- Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children are able to achieve their learning intention, with misconceptions addressed.
- Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation, as appropriate, is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the History curriculum.
- Opportunities for deeper more sustained writing are provided as part of the subject material so allowing the children to develop this higher-level skill.
EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World.’
impact
The successful approach at Lakefield results in a fun, engaging, high-quality history education, which provides children with the foundations for understanding the world, the impact of historical events and how to use history to make changes/not the same mistakes.
The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress, across key stages, relative to a child’s individual starting point. Children will therefore be expected to leave Lakefield with a broad knowledge of facts and skills.
Through various workshops, trips and interactions with experts our history curriculum will lead pupils to be enthusiastic history learners and understand that history has changed our lives, how it has changed them and what we can learn to make the better for the future.
The impact is further evidenced through the pupils’ use and understanding of the knowledge, skills, concepts and specialist vocabulary. It is evidenced by the use and outcomes of the varied activities, assessments and quizzes provided. The broad range of approaches for pupils to communicate their knowledge ensures that everyone can demonstrate progression and impact. In particular, it is evidenced by the pupils’ ability, willingness and confidence in addressing and discussing each unit’s key question, giving a response focusing on historical vocabulary, skills and concepts.
Knowledge Organiser
What is a ‘Knowledge Organiser’?
A Knowledge Organiser is a go-to document for a Unit of work: each one identifies the key information that children can refer to in lessons for a particular Unit of work, and it also acts as a tool to support children in retaining and retrieving knowledge for life-long learning.
How do they help children?
They provide the essential knowledge that children need to cover in the Unit, shared at the beginning so children know what they are going to be learning.
Knowledge Organisers help them to remember key dates, key people, key events, vocabulary and definitions and key concepts.
They can be used as a fun assessment tool to help remember the Units.
They improve their ability to remember.
Knowledge Organisers help them to develop other skills - e.g. when writing a nonfiction report, if they already have the knowledge they can focus on the writing skills.
How do they help parents?
Parents will have a better understanding of what the children are learning. They will allow parents to build on their knowledge at home and provide an easy tool for parents to quiz children at home (and children to quiz parents!)
The Knowledge Organisers are used to support the delivery of the curriculum and contain a list of technical vocabulary with definitions. Each organiser also has an accompanying quiz, which is regularly taken by the children in school to help children recall the key knowledge from each Unit of work.
Examples of the Knowledge Organisers can be seen to the right.