History

Intent

At West Ashton we intend to develop young historians through historical enquiry to understand the history of their local area, the UK and the world.

History at our school is cohesive and children develop a cumulative understanding of our history within and across each Key Stage.  Central to this is the children’s understanding of the chronology of history and the overarching concepts.  Links to the whole curriculum are key to embedding this understanding, building on progression, maintaining children’s interest and acquiring deep knowledge.

Children will regularly order people or events from all the periods of time they have studied so far and, through historical enquiry, will engage with a key question to enable them to make links, investigate and develop curiosity skills.

They will develop knowledge of people, events, situations and developments through this question. They will develop their understanding of: evidence, interpretations, cause, change, similarity and differences and significant at an age appropriate level through this question. At the end of a unit, children will communicate their findings and present it effectively.

Through high quality teaching, we develop the following characteristics of historians:

• an understanding of historical periods and their characteristics
• a chronology of significant time periods and significant people within those time periods
• increase and develop historical skills, concepts, knowledge and attitudes
• fluency in communicating the present in the context of the past
• develop and use their skills in enquiry, analysis, evaluation, and argument
• develop their interest in the past, arousing their curiosity and ability to link the past to the present
• develop a sense of identity through learning about the past

Implementation

Children are taught how to be a good historian by using and applying disciplinary knowledge.  They think and behave like a historian through the use of rich narratives, handing original and/or reproduced artefacts, visits to historical places and first/second hand accounts.

Children building up and extend their substantive knowledge of historical events by making connections between historical concepts, other subjects and periods in history.  They will retain this knowledge because of the focus on recurring concepts and vocabulary to help them make connections between past learning and help them to make sense of future learning at West Ashton and into KS3.

Impact

Children are immersed within a high quality curriculum against National Curriculum objectives.  They demonstrate excitement and curiosity about the past, others and their own past.  Children are fully engaged in lessons, will ask questions and seek to gain a deep understanding of the historical event, person or period.  Children become debaters and are able to discuss, explain and investigate based on their previous knowledge and their capacity to demonstrate deep understanding and develop opinions.   This is enabled by strong links to other curriculum subjects, consistent and effective teaching and children being resilient learners.