At Redhill Primary Academy, we value the importance of History in supporting children’s understanding of the world around us and the events and people who have impacted and shaped how we live today. We recognise the importance of exposing children to this journey in order for them to recognise their own place in history and cultural heritage. Knowing and understanding more about key events, people and changes in history supports children in having a greater awareness and tolerance over how we live today. Within the history curriculum, our intent is to enthuse and develop children’s own historical curiosity and questioning. We support children in the way they enquire, make decisions over the use of sources of evidence, analyse and draw conclusions through our enquiry cycle process. Our enquiry cycle embeds children’s disciplinary knowledge through concepts such as change and continuity, similarity and difference and historical significance, as well as chronology. We aim to inspire our children to want to find out more about the world they live in.We provide a curriculum which allows children to learn about history on a local, national, and wider world scale. We ensure there is clear progression of knowledge as well as skills across all strands of the national curriculum. Our curriculum incorporates opportunities for children to become hands on with history, using a range of sources of evidence, experiencing trips and welcoming visitors in order to enhance and bring to life events of the past. We provide opportunities for children to read a range of sources, stories, websites and ensure that library books are available for children to develop their cross-curricular reading. The substantiative knowledge content we have selected has been carefully planned to ensure that children have ample opportunity to revisit existing knowledge and build new knowledge alongside this. In addition to this, the key concept of chronology is regularly revisited and embedded within our blocks by making carefully planned curriculum links across year groups and key stages. The curriculum is also carefully planned to ensure systematic progression through our chosen concepts and that links are made to key vocabulary and concepts from EYFS and through the primary phase. Our concepts are threaded throughout our blocks and displayed on our knowledge maps and organisers e.g., empire, monarchy. We aspire for our children to think like historians and to observe, collect and present data to support their viewpoints. We make purposeful cross-curricular links which supports children in their application of knowledge in a variety of different mediums. It is intended that when children leave Redhill Primary Academy, they will have developed a genuine curiosity over how the events of the past has shaped the nation and world in which we live in today. It is our intent that children are able reflect on changes throughout history and form their own opinions and interpretations which will continue to develop through KS3 and beyond. Through history, children are able to embed our whole school values e.g. respecting the sacrifices of others or the achievements of significant people or groups; having a responsibility as a global citizen that they have their own part to play in history and learning from history in the choices they made. Through the enquiry cycle, children develop their independence in the way they ask questions, make observations, draw conclusions etc.
Aims
The teaching and implementation of the History Curriculum is based on the National Curriculum ensuring a well-structured approach to the subject. Our history offer ignites children’s natural curiosity as historians to make observations and draw on prior learning. We promote a culture of collaboration and an environment where children are not afraid to make predictions or ask questions.Detailed long and medium planning is in place to ensure engaging curriculum content and systematic revisiting of key concepts and bodies of knowledge to deepen learning. Throughout each block of study, teachers carefully plan to embed and assess the children’s knowledge through the use of a range of retrieval strategies. These include extended writes, quizzes, knowledge organisers and self and peer assessment. We ensure application of knowledge in various contexts, adapting lessons where necessary so that children develop schemas and both substantive and disciplinary knowledge is stored in the long-term memory.Our detailed units of work and lesson plans follow our school humanities enquiry cycle which supports children in developing well embedded disciplinary knowledge. It does this by systematically and frequently putting the children in situations where they have to ask questions, exploring sources of evidence and draw conclusions to support their future thinking.Assessment takes place throughout each unit of work and teachers track progress and attainment against the National Curriculum expectations and the knowledge and skills progression documents. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately.The children’s achievements are celebrated on their End of Year report to parents. Here judgements are made on their effort, achievement, and progress within history.Children in Foundation Stage have their progress tracked using the EYFS curriculum. Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of the reception year.To view our subject overview for history, please click here.