History
Intent
At Castle, the history curriculum aims to inspire pupils’ curiosity, historical knowledge and historical skills, through carefully planned history units that link to other parts of our curriculum, as well as represent the diversity of our school and wider society. The teaching empowers pupils to investigate, explore, and discover in their learning of historical knowledge, whilst simultaneously applying key historical skills as they do so. History lessons at Castle pique the interest of our learners, and are accessible for all our pupils. Local history is important to us. During their time at Castle Primary School, through investigation, children will develop a thorough understanding of the history within and around their community along with an understanding of aspects of British History and of the wider world. We have carefully picked our History units to cover a diverse range of eras and cultures, as well as units that relate to Keynsham and the local area.
Our aim is that as pupils move up through the school, their knowledge and skills will grow and deepen, and so will their ability to draws links, conclusions and comparisons between different cultures and societies throughout history.
Implementation
History is part of our enquiry-based curriculum where children learn about their world within the context of a wider question. This approach enables our pupils to make powerful, real-world links between other subjects, such as geography, art, science and outdoor learning. By learning through an enquiry-based curriculum, our pupils experience a richer and deeper understanding of the unit they study, as they are able to revisit learning and build a wider web of knowledge around a particular question.
EYFS
In our Early Year’s, children recognise the difference between the past and the present, and talk about events that have happened in their lives in the past. They will learn about the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling, know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, and explore and talk about important events in the school or localities history.
KS1 & KS2
Children in KS1 and KS2 learn about different historical contexts and era through our historical skills:
· Chronological Understanding
· Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past
· Historical Investigations
· Historical Interpretations
· Organisations and communication
Our history units are carefully selected to enable our pupils to build upon previous learning and to build on existing historical skills and develop their skills as they progress through the school.
Pupils are encouraged and given opportunity to discover their own learning through books and the internet to find sources to supplement their learning. We plan exciting and engaging fieldwork and trips to engage the pupils in their learning and to take their learning beyond what the classroom is capable of. Pupils regularly get the opportunity to visit prior knowledge through starter quizzes and a carefully planned progression of units which revisits and draws upon previous learning.
Impact
The impact of our history curriculum is evident in the way that pupils are inspired to learn, and are able to make comparisons between different eras and cultures in history.
By the end of KS2, our pupils will:
· Have a secure understanding of the people, context and events of a historical period and be able to present information about eras and cultures of history in different ways such as posters, leaflets and double-page spreads.
· Be passionate, enthusiastic and engaged with learning and develop a sense of curiosity to new learning enquiries
· Be able to use the internet and secondary sources to identify contextual knowledge and clues to develop their learning
· Be able to analyse and review sources and discuss the reliability of primary and secondary sources used in their learning
· Compare and contrast different historical periods to widen their understanding and consider the limitations of some contexts when comparing different periods
When our pupils finish at Castle, our history curriculum will provide the pupils with the necessary skills and knowledge to help them make an impact in the wider world, as well as equip them with transferable skills for secondary school and beyond.
SEND
Our history curriculum will enable all SEND learners to be able to access the curriculum with the relevant scaffolds in place. Progress and enthusiasm in history from all of our pupils will be a sign of a curriculum that is inclusive to all.
