History

“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you, Your elders, and they will tell you. “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples. According to the number of the sons of Israel…”

Deuteronomy 32:7-9

History Intent

In History, we relish building the historians of the future! Our history curriculum aims to inspire our pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Our children are not just learners – they are historians and we ignite pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the history of our school, our local area, Britain and of the wider world, in turn deepening their sense of chronology.

We encourage our students to think, act and speak like those working in a historical field would: to research thoroughly, to weigh-up evidence, to understand chronology, to evaluate interpretations and develop arguments: skills which are invaluable to their future lives in education and beyond. Our carefully structured history curriculum provides opportunities to build cultural capital and, through exposure in history lessons to life-skills such as British Values, tolerance and empathy to enable pupils to become well-rounded members of society in preparation for later life.

History Implementation

Through our in-depth and carefully sequenced lessons, pupils’ historical skills and concepts are transferable to whichever period of History is being studied and will equip pupils for both their future learning and future life.

These key historical skills and concepts are:

Investigate and interpret the past
Build an overview of world history
Understand chronology
Communicate historically

In EYFS, Development Matters objectives are used as endpoints.

Across KS1 and 2, National Curriculum objectives are taught on a 2 year rolling cycle.
Key Concepts have been identified cross all history units of work and these are revisited as the children progress through the school to ensure that links in learning can be made.
Year-on-year, children are given the opportunity to revisit and develop these knowledge and skills in different contexts.
The development of the key skills act as a vehicle to allow our children to move towards the final destination – the endpoints defined by the National Curriculum and the teacher’s specific topic focuses.
Key skills and knowledge are revised and used in real-life contexts to help children to make links, following our intent.
Development of history-specific vocabulary is integrated into each topic.

History Impact

Our pupils leave Holy Family Catholic Primary School with the knowledge to think like a historian, act like a historian and speak like a historian through developing;

An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts.
The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas very 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, formulating 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 robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.