History

Intent

At Cookham Dean C of E Primary School, we aim to stimulate all children’s interest in history and develop their knowledge with an understanding of how people and events in the past have influenced our lives today. We aim to encourage and provide opportunities for all children to develop skills of questioning, speculation, enquiry, analysis and evaluation. We want them to develop a strong sense of chronology and be able to distinguish between fact and fiction.  We want them to develop their understanding of society and their place within it so they develop a sense of their cultural heritage and citizenship through an understanding of the British Values.

Implementation

As a school, we maintain strong links to the National Curriculum guidelines to ensure all aspects, knowledge and skills of history are being taught across all year groups. We implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the school with the use of progression grids to ensure clear skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression from EYFS to Year 6. Consideration is given to how greater depth will be taught, learnt and demonstrated as well as how learners will be supported in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion.

History is taught in blocks throughout the year to enable children to achieve depth in their learning. In EYFS and Key Stage 1, the focus is on laying a firm foundation for history from an early age. EYFS follow the 2021 Statutory Framework which aims for all children in Foundation Stage to have an “Understanding of the World” by the end of the year. In Key Stage 1 the children focus on the world around them and their living memory of history as well as events and people that go beyond living memory. Where possible, British history is taught in a chronological order within Key Stage 2 to enable children to have a clear picture of how topics in both British and World history fit together. Teachers are encouraged to refer to previous topics taught to enable the children to utilise prior learning to draw comparisons with and make connections between different time periods and their own lives.

Throughout the school, learning may be supported through the use of knowledge organisers that provide children with scaffolding that supports them to retain new facts and vocabulary in their long-term memory.

Where appropriate, we use historical artefacts, visitors, workshops (including online) and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events from the past, to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding.

Impact

Our history curriculum offers high quality and well-planned lessons which encourage progression. Continuity and progression in the curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within history which are evidenced in topic and/or history books. Emphasis is placed on analytical thinking and questioning and children demonstrate a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.

We may measure the impact of our curriculum through:

• Evidence of work showing a range of topics covered, cross curriculum links and differentiated work where applicable

• Children retaining knowledge that is pertinent to history

• Reflecting on standards achieved against the planned outcomes

• High standards in history that match standards in other subjects such as English & Maths

• Learning walks, “book looks” and pupil voice.

• Data collection and analysis through Insight

As our pupils transition to secondary school, we aspire that they will have developed a historical mind of inquiry. Pupils will also have a strong chronological understanding of historical events, making connection between their influence on the past and their potential influence on future events. They will have the ability to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement.