Curriculum

History

Here are our History Ambassadors for the school year 2022/23

At Manor Road we believe that a high-quality History education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire children’s curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip children to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps children 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.

At Manor Road we believe in the importance of History as stated in the National Curriculum:

 “The importance of History,”

History fires pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Pupils consider 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 develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. They see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals, and members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values.

In History, pupils 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 History Curriculum across school is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be. With the support of our school councillors and History ambassadors, we aim to promote respect for our local area and it’s history. We encourage children to build good relationships with others and promote rights and positive attitudes through a broad and balanced curriculum.

Intent

Here at Manor Road, our History curriculum is designed to develop children’s curiosity and fascination about the world, its people and its history. We encourage learning for life within an ever changing world that will remain with the children for the rest of their lives. We want to foster their enquiring minds so children can question and challenge ideas, both inside and outside the classroom.

To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our History curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way. Chronological Understanding; Historical Understanding; Historical Enquiry; Interpretations of History; Organisation and Communication are all mapped out to ensure that pupils build on secure prior knowledge. When covering each of these strands, the content will be carefully organised by each year group through a long term plan. Content knowledge, vocabulary and skills will then be planned for at a greater level of detail in the medium term plan. History is delivered through subject specific teaching organised into termly units.

Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for children. The History units taught have been developed to help children appreciate their own identity and the challenges in their time. It will help them understand the process of change over time and significant developments.

All learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge and a recap of where a period of time is on the class time line. This builds on the children’s chronological understanding. This is scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.

History subject specific vocabulary is displayed on the learning wall along with key facts and questions. Curriculum quizzes are used to review learning and check that children know more and remember more through ’sticky learning’. Learning is reviewed also on a termly basis, after a period of forgetting, so that teachers can check whether information has been retained.

History assessment is ongoing throughout each unit to inform teachers when planning lesson activities and differentiation and is used to inform leaders of school improvements or skills that need to be further enhanced.

Our historians will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom where appropriate to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding.

Children investigate a range of places – both in Britain and abroad – to help develop their knowledge and understanding. We are dedicated to providing children with opportunities to investigate and make enquiries about their local area of Chorley (and the surrounding area) and Lancashire so that they can develop of real sense of who they are, their heritage and what makes our local area unique and special.

Implementation

At Manor Road Primary School, each new unit is started with a recap of previous learning. The children are then asked a question that will be their enquiry question for the unit. Teachers understand the key knowledge and skills of each unit taught and consideration has been given to ensure progression throughout each year group across the school from the EYFS to Year 6.

Our History Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. It offers high quality and well planned lessons which encourage progression. Continuity and progression in the curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within History. These are broken into year group expectations and have additional challenges for able learners. The ‘Essential Knowledge, Skills and Understanding’ within the Curriculum helps us guarantee that children’s essential skills are being developed, alongside National Curriculum requirements. Furthermore, good historical questioning helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past. Through our curriculum, pupils learn to think critically, ask perceptive questions and evaluate evidence.

As part of the planning process, teachers’ plans will include:

• A knowledge organiser which outlines the knowledge (including vocabulary) all children must master and apply in lessons;
• Unit specific questions/vocabulary;
• A clear cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth, concentrating on the skills suited to the age group and opportunities for children to explore their questions;
• Cross curricular links are highlighted as well as opportunities to promote growth mind set (linked to school characters);
• Fun quizzes and activities to challenge pupils and opportunities for children to apply their learning;
• Fieldwork, artefact sessions, trips and visiting experts to enhance the learning experience.

Questioning helps children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the world and its people. Alongside learning challenge questions, the children are immersed in key vocabulary for each unit as well as recapping previously taught vocab which are embedded in each lesson. Through offering a wide range of terminology we are able to use this new knowledge to help with our assessment of children’s understanding and also helps us identify areas in which we need to encourage deeper learning.

Through our curriculum, children learn to think critically and ask perceptive questions. In order to ensure our aims have been met, we scrutinise units through:

• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
• Interviewing the children about their learning and discuss how previous learning has helped with new learning (pupil voice). This done by both the History Leader and the History Ambassadors. The Ambassadors also monitor displays and audit resources for classes and share work that they have been doing.
• Moderation where children’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Lesson observations/feedback.
• Sharing good practice in staff meetings.
• Teacher questionnaires at the end of each year to discuss any training/resources they might need.

EYFS – Understanding The World (The Natural World and People, Cultures and Communities, past and present).

We aim to develop curious learners that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links and this starts in our Pre-School.

In the EYFS, children begin to develop their knowledge of the past in Pre-School where they look at important dates for them e.g. birthdays moving onto using simple vocabulary such as ‘past and present’ and using simple timelines of how they have changed since they were babies.

We are very lucky to have a Pre-School and this gives us the opportunity to work closely together and plan in pre learning activities that start the foundations for building on historical knowledge, understanding and skills across school. It also kicks starts their natural curiosity about History.

As children move into KS1 and KS2 they build on these strong foundations.

All units are planned from children’s interests and from parent’s questionnaires on children’s likes in the EYFS. These are run alongside units that provide the prior knowledge they need and that can be built on as they move through school.

In the EYFS, we aim to guide children to make sense of their world and their community and encourage the children to ask questions and observe changes in the world around them, increasing their knowledge and sense their world.

The children will be given access to and be able to explore a variety of resources such as:

• Simple artefacts and cultural items from across the world
• Non-fiction books and stories from different cultures
• Role play areas structured around different countries and travel.
• Teacher led story times, nursery rhymes and different cultural poems

The children will also be provided with structured learning including:  

• Visits to museums or sites with historical importance, letting children have hands on experiences (where possible).
• Sharing images of familiar situations in the past, sorting images into now and in the past.
• Chronological opportunities where children organise images of themselves or staff through their lives.
• Visitors and members of the community from different backgrounds, religions and occupations to talk to the children and share their experiences.

Child led and ‘In the moment’ planning

The children are given the opportunity to explore the natural world around them and have access to their outdoor environment daily which gives the children the opportunity to explore for themselves. The children are provided with the raw materials for them to invent their own games and stories and imaginative play. Planning and activities are changed according to children’s questions and interests.

Impact

By the time our historians leave our school they will have developed:

• A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered in their units.
• The ability to think critically about History and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
• A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make strong and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history units.

(For more information about History at Manor Road Primary School see tabs below).