History at St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School
At St. Joseph’s we aim to seek out the importance of History and to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past, both in Britain and the wider world.
Our history curriculum is shaped to ensure that it is fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for History; providing a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum that encompasses British Values throughout; ensuring the progressive development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills, and for pupils to study life in the past.
Curriculum Intent
Children should be equipped pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgment. Our History provision will help pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
Historical enquiry will allow pupils to learn about how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. As they do this, pupils will develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people, they will see the diversity of human experience and will understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society. What they learn may then influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. In history, we encourage pupils to find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions. To do this they need to be able to research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view – skills that are prized in adult life.
Our aim is to:
- Instill in the children a curiosity and understanding of events, places and people in a variety of times and environments.
- Develop an understanding of local history, events, people and places.
- Learn about significant people from history nationally and globally
- Help children understand society and it’s values, and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage.
- Understand how the past was different from the present and that people of other times and places may have had different values and attitudes from ours
- Learn about the major issues and events in British history and of the world and how these events may have influenced one another
- Develop a knowledge of chronology within which the children can organise their understanding of the past
- Understand the nature of evidence by emphasising the process of enquiry and by developing the range of skills required to interpret primary and secondary source materials
- Distinguish between historical facts and the interpretation of those facts
- Understand that events have a multiplicity of causes and that historical explanation is provisional, debatable and sometimes controversial
- Develop skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.
Key Stage 2
Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in History and so we use a variety of teaching and learning styles in our history lessons. Whole-class teaching methods which include enquiry-based research activities when necessary help us to achieve this.
We believe children learn best when:
- They have access to, and are able to handle artefacts
- They go on visits to museums and places of interest
- They have access to secondary sources such as books and photographs
- Visitors talk about personal experiences of the past
- They listen to and interact with stories from the past
- They undertake fieldwork by interviewing family and older friends about changes in their own and other people’s lives
- They use drama and dance to act out historical events
- They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos
- They are able to use non-fiction books for research
- They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer historical questions.
We recognise the fact that we have children of differing abilities in our classes and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies such as differentiating by task, expected outcome and/or support from peers or adults.
In terms of curriculum planning our programme is carefully planned over a two-year cycle to engage and excite all our learners and to ensure coverage. Our long-term and medium-term plans map out the themes covered each term for each key stage. These plans define what we will teach and ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of learning across each term.
Curriculum End of Phase Expectations
Early Years
History is taught in Reception as an integral part of the topic work through child-initiated and adult led activities. The children are given the opportunity to find out about past and present events in their own lives, and those of their families and other people they know. In the Foundation stage history makes a significant contribution to developing a child’s understanding of the world through activities such discovering the meaning of new and old in relation to their own lives.
Key Stage 1
During Key Stage 1, pupils learn about people’s lives and lifestyles. They find out about significant men, women, children and events from the recent and more distant past in Britain and the wider world. They listen and respond to stories and use sources of information to help them ask and answer questions. They learn how the past is different from the present.
Pupils should be taught about:
- Changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life.
- Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries] • The lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in different periods.
- Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
- This will ensure all pupils are ready and able to access the Key Stage 2 curriculum and beyond.
By the end of Key Stage 1, we want ALL children to:
- Develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.
- Know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework.
- Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.
- Use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms.
- Ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.
- Understand some of the ways in which we find out about the past and identify different ways in which it is represented.
Key Stage 2
During Key Stage 2 pupils learn about significant people, events and places from both recent and more distant past. They learn about change and continuity in their own area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history in a variety of ways, for example from political, economic, technological and scientific, social, religious, cultural or aesthetic perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in overview, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways.
By the end of Key Stage 2, we want ALL children to:
- Develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
- Note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
- Regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.
- Construct informed responses that involve thoughtful selection and organisation of relevant historical information.
- Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.
The impact and measure of this will be to ensure that children are equipped with historical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the Key Stage 3 curriculum, and for life as an adult in the wider world. We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about History, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.
We believe children learn best when:
- They have access to, and are able to handle artefacts
- They go on visits to museums and places of interest
- They have access to secondary sources such as books and photographs
- Visitors talk about personal experiences of the past
- They listen to and interact with stories from the past
- They undertake fieldwork by interviewing family and older friends about changes in their own and other people’s lives
- They use drama and dance to act out historical events
- They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos
- They are able to use non-fiction books for research
- They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer historical questions.