At Warton, we believe that History stimulates children’s interest and understanding of the lives of people who have lived in the past and how this will shape our future. History also helps children to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of society and relationships between different groups as well as their own identity and challenges of their time. We aim to build on children’s knowledge so that children leave with a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
We teach children the skills required to be a good historian; how to research and gather information, as well as how to question information gathered for authenticity, perspective and reliability. Children have access to a wide range of resources to aid them in their discovery, and opportunities across the curriculum to present, test and evaluate their historical knowledge.
Our vision is that children will be confident, creative and independent learners who delve deeper and make connections to the past and the world which they live in now.
Our history curriculum aims to:
- develop an interest in and curiosity about the past
- appreciate human achievement and aspirations
- develop an awareness of the values of different societies from the past
- contribute to the understanding of other cultures and countries
- learn about the major issues of the past and how they have affected the present
- develop the concept of change over time
- encourage enquiry and varied methods of communication
- explore artefacts and other historical resources such as pictures
- use chronological terms with understanding, recognising similarities and differences
In order to ensure that our children ‘know more, remember more and do more’ our lessons have a focus on key questions, which we work together to investigate and answer throughout the unit of work. We also ensure a high focus on vocabulary and use weekly exit tickets to assess pupil’s knowledge and address misconceptions and recap key facts the following week. We have a focus on ‘making connections’ through our lesson planning format, which includes clear and focused retrieval activities. History is taught on a weekly basis, every other term and therefore the first week of each history unit is a recap week for gaps from the previous history unit’s assessment as well as a recap of key knowledge. We feel that this helps again to ensure that pupils ‘know more, remember more and do more’.
We use a two-year cycle with clearly sequenced plans that build on prior knowledge with some repetition of key themes to ensure that all pupils in every year group can fully access the curriculum and are able to retain the information. We have a thorough skills progression for scientific enquiry that ensures pupils are challenged and able to make progress, particularly within our mixed ages classes.
Our history curriculum has clear links with English, particularly with our reading and writing curricula where a range of high-quality reading texts engage pupils, develop their understanding of scientific concepts and develops pupils’ ‘Cultural Capital’. Writing opportunities are planned in to our curriculum including learning about people who have shaped the world we live in through biographical writing.
We deliver a broad and balanced history curriculum. Our History curriculum is based on teach, repeat, practice. This is developed through a ‘think and link’ approach to learning so that the History curriculum is well-connected for pupils to ‘know more, remember more, do more’. Pupils are given the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to remember, apply and transfer their historical knowledge and in particular, subject specific vocabulary.