Subject Lead: Mr Luke Smith 

                                                            Intent, Implementation & Impact Statement 

At Weeton St Michael’s C of E Primary School, our vision is to provide our children with a high-quality, inclusive education inspired by Christian Values. Excellent teaching and learning form the basis of all our work, delivered through a caring, creative ethos.

Our children are encouraged to have a positive attitude, develop resilience in their approach to learning, become confident in their own ability, be independent and motivated to achieve their full potential.

We believe that it is our duty to make learning fun, engaging, memorable, accessible and ambitious for all children, instilling in them a love of learning.

We take seriously our duty to teach children about the fundamental British Values of mutual respect and tolerance, democracy, the rule of law and individual liberty. These values are woven through our curriculum so that our learners leave us prepared for life in modern Britain.

History: Our Intent

Our intent is that our teaching of History will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim for it to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past and to know more about the past. We aim to enable children to ask questions, think critically, analyse evidence, produce arguments (for and against), and develop perspective and judgement. Through the teaching of history, we endeavour to teach children to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. At Weeton St Michael’s we use ‘The Learning Challenge Curriculum’. We adapt this curriculum so that it can be taught in mixed age classes. We ensure that we cover the national curriculum.

We enhance the curriculum by introducing each history focus with an engaging hook, ‘Stunning Starts’.  Pupils can immerse themselves in the period of history at the start of the learning journey. We aim to inspire our pupils, enable them to ask questions and develop curiosity.

Our History Curriculum Topic Overview

Our progression document (appendix 1) details the precise knowledge taught in each unit of work.

Implementation

Based upon the National Curriculum and the individual needs of our children, we have created a History progression map, which sets out the objectives taught in each group year. History is taught as part of our two-year cycle for each age phase. We alternate our Geography and History topics, ensuring that our children receive well-rounded teaching of the humanities subjects throughout the year. At times, we take the opportunity to create links between the two subjects to help solidify the learning taking place. We use writing in History as an opportunity for children to showcase what they have learnt and embed their knowledge.  ‘Islands’ are created in each classroom; these enable the pupils to access vocabulary, related artefacts and key information.  

Teachers use questioning, and provide opportunities for discussion and investigation to support the development of vocabulary, which is explicitly taught and modelled by teachers in every lesson. Key historical knowledge and language (such as dates and linking concepts, e.g. democracy and construction) is revisited frequently, to make learning relevant and easy to retrieve. We support learning with trips to inspire our children and widen their cultural experiences. Teachers are encouraged to use a range of resources such as videos, photographs, artefacts and newspaper articles during lessons to help create immersive learning experiences.

​EYFS

In the Early Years, History is taught via the Early Learning Goals linked to the Specific Area ‘Understanding the World’. The majority of learning in this area occurs through adult intervention when the children are in continuous provision. The learning is driven by ‘I wonder’ questions where the pupils can make sense of their own life story and family history, discuss historical events in different locations and compare the lives of significant individuals in the past.

By the end of the early years, children should be able to:

• Understand the ways they have changed
• Identify similarities and differences between things in the past and now
• Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class.

We consider that the ‘I wonder’ questions prepare pupils to continue their learning successfully in year 1 as the pupils will have a foundation vocabulary and the ability to ask questions, which is a key pedagogy of teaching history.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1, lessons focus on understanding historical skills and what historians do. Pupils learn about history in a creative and exciting way which engages them and encourages them to ask questions about the past. The pupils will use local places of interest, e.g. local traditions (Weeton Garden Party) and local people of historical importance to provide contextual learning and allow them to link historical knowledge with local places.

Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, lessons focus on allowing pupils to become historians and use evidence to provide answers to their questions. Pupils engage in history in an active and creative way which allows them to produce accurate, emotive and descriptive pieces of work about the past. Pupils are encouraged to make connections with prior historical learning and also develop their awareness of historical events applying learning from geography and science.

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

We ensure that all pupils can access the complete history curriculum. We adapt planning to support the individual needs of each child using pupil passports to inform adaptation. We consider that the immersive nature of our curriculum particularly helps SEND pupils to understand key concepts. 

More Able Children

We ensure that more able pupils can work independently.  We provide all children with opportunities for deeper learning e.g., via QR codes activities,  pupils can continue their learning outside of lesson time.

Impact

The impact of our History curriculum is measured in a variety of ways: questioning during lesson time, marking children’s written work, listening to child-led discussion, interviewing pupils across the school about their learning, book looks and using images/videos of children’s practical learning.

By the end of the History curriculum at Weeton, our children will:

• Have a growing knowledge of the past and how it influences and links to the present and future
• Have a growing knowledge of historical vocabulary and terms
• Understanding how sources provide knowledge of the past
• Understand chronology and links, trends and changes over time
• Understanding significant events
• Be able to communicate thoughtfully about aspects of history, showing an understanding of relevance and consequence
• Understanding how historians work to make sense of the past

 

The Impact of our curriculum is constantly monitored by class teachers through formative and summative assessments. Our scheme of work includes guidance for teachers in assessing pupils against learning objectives. Teachers use lesson starters (recaps) to identify gaps in children’s knowledge and subsequently plan opportunities to close any identified gaps.

At the end of each unit of work, assessments are undertaken and retrieval tasks'’ are completed in order for children to demonstrate what they have learnt and remembered. At the end of each unit of work, children are assessed based on their performance in lessons and summative assessments are recorded on the school’s internal tracking system as working below the expected standard, working at the expected standard or exceeding the expected standard. Assessments are moderated by staff teams annually. 

Standards of teaching and learning in history are monitored by the subject leader and headteacher. The subject each term will be:

• Monitor pupils' work
• Interview pupils
• Evaluate the unit of learning with class teachers
• Conduct a learning walk

Annually, the subject lead will:

• Produce an evaluative report identifying successes, areas for development and training needs
• Provide staff training and identify personalised training for specific staff
• Develop curriculum as necessary