History

History Leader: Simon Toole 

Curriculum Design

We have carefully designed a knowledge-rich curriculum, underpinned by a progression of skills. Wherever possible, knowledge has been organised chronologically, to allow children to develop a clear chronological understanding of the past. The knowledge and skills build incrementally so that by the end of Key Stage 2 children can know, understand and apply the subject content taught, and be fully prepared for their secondary school history learning.

Intent - what will we teach and why?

At Old Mill Primary School, we believe that history should be accessible to all and maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. Our teaching of history will help pupils gain a secure knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers use detailed planning which highlights links between units allowing pupils to make comparisons between historical periods, developing children’s chronological knowledge and understanding from the Stone Age to present day.

Themes, concepts, substantive knowledge, and disciplinary knowledge have been mapped to give students who follow our curriculum plenty of opportunities to advance in history by learning and retaining more historical material. The curriculum aims to expand and deepen pupils' understanding of historical events, people, and civilisations. It provides a foundation of historical knowledge that can be built upon in later years.

Substantive knowledge: The curriculum focuses on imparting substantive knowledge, which refers to the specific facts, events, and details of history. This includes key dates, historical figures, important events, and the context in which they occurred. Substantive knowledge will be presented as historical ‘lenses’ that pupils/historians use to view, understand, and learn about the past effectively.

Disciplinary knowledge: The curriculum focuses on imparting disciplinary knowledge, which refers to how historians investigate and explore the past effectively.

Implementation - how do we teach to achieve excellence?

We achieve excellence in History by implementing the following:

Our curriculum is supported by resources from the Grammarsaurus history scheme of work. This ensures clear progression, chronological unit progression as well as a well-mapped out series of concepts and themes.

Each lesson begins with the same 5 learning slides: 

• Flashback 4 (last year, last term, last week, chronology)
• Concept page
• Lenses (teacher to show displayed vocabulary at this point)
• Contextual information – where does this lesson fit with the learning journey?
• Lesson specific vocabulary

Carefully selecting knowledge of the past (people, events, ideas, etc), including topic knowledge (knowledge of the period, place and society they are studying), chronological knowledge (knowledge of periods and a narrative across/within periods), and knowledge of substantive concepts (lenses) – the substantive knowledge.

Providing pupils with a knowledge of history as a discipline and how historians have gained an understanding of the past (their skills, how they have interpreted the past and how they have approached their subject) – the disciplinary knowledge.

Units are explored using a key, overarching enquiry question whilst each lesson has its own specific enquiry question which forms the basis of that lesson.

Exploring disciplinary concepts within lessons to enable pupils to become effective historians: chronology; evidence and interpretation; cause and consequence; change and continuity; similarity and difference; historical significance. These concepts are carefully mapped out and are progressive (see ‘Historical Skills Progression’).

Historical chronology is prioritised – each classroom has a generic timeline, every lesson begins with a chronology retention activity, every knowledge organiser features a specific timeline. This ensure that pupils will be able to make links with prior learning, having a secure overview of major developments and periods that they have studied, to contextualise new learning.

Clear and precise knowledge organisers are given to pupils when the unit begins. These present the substantive knowledge that the pupils will learn throughout the unit and link to assessment. They also ensure that the classroom teacher is clear on the substantive knowledge the pupils must leave their year group knowing.

Carefully selected vocabulary is taught explicitly at the start of each lesson and is subsequently interweaved throughout the unit.

Assessing pupils’ learning is done through end of unit assessments (which primarily assess substantive knowledge) alongside teacher judgements on the child’s ability to understand how historians work (disciplinary knowledge). Pupils end of year assessment is based on both aspects (see assessment).