“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveller.”
Henry Glassie, US historian (1941)
Our Vision for History
At St Matthew’s Primary school, our school vision is to encourage all children to flourish spiritually, morally, emotionally, physically and intellectually in all aspects of life demonstrating perseverance and resilience; this is emulated across all curriculum areas.
Intent
We intend for the children at St Matthew’s to experience to be able to apply their knowledge and skills to articulate that the history of Britain is a coherent, chronological narrative, and begins from the earliest periods of time to the present day. They develop an understanding of how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how the process of change has influenced both Britain and the wider world/ both Britain and the wider world have influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
Through our history curriculum intent we inspire pupils’ inquisitiveness by delivering learning that equips pupils with the knowledge to ask perceptive questions, think critically, evaluate evidence and examine arguments to develop their own judgement and perspective.
Our historical content helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups.
Chronological understanding, historical interpretation/communication and historical enquiry and are all mapped out using the strands everyday life, changes over time, British History – Significant Events, chronology, compare and contrast and artefacts and sources. This ensures that pupils build on secure prior knowledge and can make connections to future knowledge and skills.
We provide all pupils with access to a high-quality history curriculum that supports them to develop an appreciation and comprehensive understanding of the past. As historians, our children are given learning opportunities that support a coherent insight and knowledge into how people in Britain and the wider world used to live. Pupils are taught to make connections within these areas of learning, with our aim to develop motivated, independent and curious learners that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links to the present day and how to shape and develop the future.
Implementation
History is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. The key knowledge and skills that children acquire and develop throughout each block have been mapped to ensure progression between year groups throughout the school.
During history units and lessons we:
- Use historical sources and artefacts to further engage our children and provide scaffolding that supports the retention of new information and vocabulary into their long-term memory.
- Ensure History is delivered through subject specific teaching organised into blocks under a theme. Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils.
- Ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build upon, our curriculum is organised using a progressive model that identifies the skills, knowledge and vocabulary taught in a sequential and coherent manner. When covering each historical strand, the content is carefully organised to challenge pupils to discuss emotive aspects of history that impact upon the wellbeing and mental health both for those living through the time period studied, and from the perspective of how these events evoke feelings in people today.
- Ensure that meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils. The History units studied have been developed to encourage children to appreciate their own identity by understanding the process of change over time and the impact of significant developments.
The History units taught have been developed to help children appreciate their own identity and the challenges in their time. It will help them understand the process of change over time and significant events.
Impact
At St Matthew’s we provide all pupils with the opportunity to develop their history subject knowledge and skills within a range of exciting and insightful historical topics.
We ensure that every year the children have studied two discrete history topics so that by the end of year 6:
- Children have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day.
- Children can draw accurate comparisons and make meaningful connections between different time periods and their own lives.
- Children can appreciate and understand aspects of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Egyptians.
- Pupil voice shows at St Matthew’s demonstrates that children are enthusiastic and confident to talk about what they have enjoyed learning in history using the new knowledge and vocabulary studied.
- Pupils work demonstrates that history is taught at sequentially and at an age-appropriate standard and provides opportunities for pupils to learn creatively across all year groups. The work produced by the pupils is of a high standard and shows pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate and coherent structure.
Through the conduction of Deep Dives consisting of lesson observations, book monitoring and pupil voice, subject and senior leaders monitor the impact of learning to ensure that high standards remain consistent across all areas studied.
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| Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact Statements | History Topic Overview | Progression of Knowledge and Skills |
History In School
Trips
Blists Hill Museum
Assessment:
As a school, we encourage children to “know more and remember more”. To help the children succeed with this, we complete regular quizzes of previous years’ historical topics. This allows children to revisit their learning and further embed it.
Should you wish to support your child, this website has lots of history quizzes to aid your child’s understanding:
https://www.educationquizzes.com/
Further learning
We all want our history to be fun and full of laughs. Here is a link to some Horrible History videos for your children to laugh along to and learn some fun facts:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00sp0l8/horrible-histories
Humph's History Workshops.
