History

‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots’ 

- Marcus Garvey

Our Intent (What we do)

Vision

Through studying History, it enables our children to gain the knowledge and understanding of events from the past. The study of Britain’s past and that of the wider world will spark curiosity, connections and critical thinking. Through History, our children will begin to realise the complexity of change and how it has impacted on people, communities and countries. They will begin to understand how the events of the past have influenced life today.

Aims

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

know and understand the history of Britain as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world

Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind

Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’

Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and

analyses

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed

Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

There are two key aspects to learning:

Substantive knowledge – this is the subject knowledge and vocabulary used when talking about the past. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content.

Disciplinary knowledge – this is the use of that knowledge and how children construct understanding through historical claims, arguments and accounts. We call it ‘working historically’. The features of thinking historically may involve significance, evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective and contextual interpretation.

The History curriculum is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with significant periods of time, people, places and events.

The history curriculum strategically incorporates a range of modules that revisit, elaborate and sophisticate key concepts, events, people and places. A guiding principle of the History curriculum, is that pupils become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental timeline. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented understanding of the past.

Our Implementation (How we do what we do)

At Barwick, History is taught in modules across year groups in order for each unit to be taught in depth in order to gain the historic understanding, skills and vocabulary needed. Each module aims to entice the children and inspire their curiosity. Units are planned so they build upon what the children already know, including EYFS, to make sure high-quality cognition and retention is reached. The modules covered are sequenced to maximise the layers of learning from the children. Making sure that

previous lessons support learning moving forward. Some modules are revisited either later in the academic year or in the years to follow to support retrieval practise and to make sure that children have retained the key information and vocabulary.

Cumulative Quizzes

Children are given opportunities to retrieve their knowledge throughout the unit through a ‘teach-test-teach-test’ model. By using this model, children revisit their previously taught knowledge and vocabulary. These quizzes along with purposeful questioning, learning recaps and formal quizzing

allow teachers to assess children on their learning.

Knowledge Organisers and Knowledge Notes

At the start of all modules, children are introduced to a Knowledge Organiser which has key vocabulary and information linked to the topic that the children are expected to learn and retain.

At the start of each lesson, children are given Knowledge Notes to support them with the content of the specific lesson. Each Knowledge Note begins with a question. Which focusses on key content.

Both Knowledge Notes and Knowledge Organisers have visual images to support and deepen children understanding of a module.

Our Impact (The result of what we do)

Pupil Book Study and Pupil Voice

Each term, subject leaders try to get an opportunity to look at books across the whole school and to talk to children about their learning. This allows leaders to look at sequences of learning, use of CUSP vocabulary in lessons and how planning links with Knowledge Organisers and Knowledge Notes.

The information obtained during book Studies informs future CPD for Staff. This could be in the form of Staff Meetings or individual support where needed.

Teacher Assessment

Teachers use strategies such as rapid recall to encourage the recall of information that has previously been taught. Each module has a quiz which covers all areas of the learning taught within the module.

Teachers assess based on the key questions taught throughout the unit. Assessments are logged an shared with subject leaders.

How we measure the impact of History teacher

Subject leaders oversee the impact of History teaching. They use book scrutinise, pupil voice, learning walks and teacher assessments to judge the impact History Teaching. Subject leaders have key questions for answering during their scrutiny and they generate the next steps across school as a result of their triangulations.

Our Long Term Plan for History