History
INTENT
At Maple Tree Primary School history education aims to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for history; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills; and for the children to develop a love for history. We aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about history that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. History teaching has a wide application to everyday life, teaching the children to enjoy learning about the past and to have a better understanding of the society in which they live. At Maple Tree we provide a curriculum that is designed to enable our children to know about significant events in British history and to appreciate how things have changed over time and to develop a sense of chronology. Our scheme aims to introduce them to key substantive concepts including power, invasion, settlement and migration, empire, civilisation, religion, trade, achievements of humankind, society and culture. The children will know and understand how the British system of democratic government has developed and, in so doing, to contribute to a child’s citizenship education. History education will also provide the children to have knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world.
Please click the image below for our whole school overview in History.
IMPLEMENTATION
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught in half termly stages, at times discretely, though often with clear links to the English curriculum and texts used. The lessons incorporate the substantive and disciplinary strands, including topic knowledge, chronological awareness, substantive concepts, historical enquiry and disciplinary concepts. Throughout the journey through history the children are expected to be aware of change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarities and differences, historical significance, historical interpretations and sources of evidence.
History teaching focuses on enabling children to think critically and provides exploration of the subject. They are taught to be critical and analytical thinkers who are able to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past.
Maple Tree provides a variety of opportunities for history learning inside and outside the classroom. Educational visits are an opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional history learning using primary and secondary sources. We also include external companies such as ‘History Off The Page” to use their services to either start or complete a topic with a link to real life experiences. All children will have these opportunities irrelevant of cultural capital.
IMPACT
Our history curriculum offers high quality and well delivered lessons which encourage progression and confidence in skills. The children will leave school equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be enquiring learners who ask questions and can make suggestions about where to find the evidence to answer the question. They will be critical and analytical thinkers who are able to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. Good historical questioning helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past. Through our curriculum, pupils learn to think critically, ask perceptive questions and evaluate evidence. In order to ensure our aims have been met, we scrutinise topics through:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Sharing good practice in staff meetings.
- Learning walks
- Knowledge organisers
Humanities Programmes of Study:
Please see the Curriculum overviews for each class on the Curriculum page.
Keep checking the website for pictures and stories about what the children are getting up to!
