Intent – What is the purpose of our History curriculum?

At Tranmere Park Primary School, we believe that all pupils have the right to a broad, balanced and carefully considered history curriculum that provides our children with the knowledge and cultural capital needed to succeed in later life.

We intend to:

• Captivate our pupils and stimulate their curiosity.
• Impart coherently sequenced knowledge about Britain’s chronological history
• Know and understand the key concepts of ‘empire’, ‘monarchy’ and ‘invasion.’
• Equip pupils with the skills of critical thinking. They will understand the disciplinary knowledge of a historian (source analysis, thinking critically, comparing and contrasting, weighing evidence and sifting through evidence.)

In summary, history helps pupils to understand: the complexity of people’s lives, the concept of change and continuity, relationships between different groups, cause and consequence, similarities and differences, how time periods are connected, how to frame historically-valid questions as well understanding their place in local history.

• KS1-History-Knowledge-Progressions
• LKS2-History-Knowledge-Progressions
• Reception-History-Knowledge-Progressions
• Reception-History-Knowledge-Progressions 1

Implementation – How do we do it?

The Learning Journey

History is woven through cross-curricular topics throughout the year, so that children achieve a greater depth of understanding and so that we cultivate curiosity and promote retention. Our history curriculum is progressive, and the key knowledge and skills that children acquire and develop throughout each topic have been carefully mapped onto Knowledge Progressions. Throughout school, at the beginning of each topic, the children complete a pre-test which checks existing knowledge, identifies gaps and therefore informs the teachers’ unit plan. History learning begins in Early Years, where children gain further understanding of history within their own lives, learning about traditions and festivals celebrated around the world and within their families. By the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. The school’s local context is also considered, with opportunities to study the local history through a stand-alone topic that runs biannually. Lessons include: practical situations and first-hand experiences, often enhanced by educational visits and visitors including elderly members of the community; use the school grounds and the outside classroom where appropriate; ICT; a variety of grouping structures; and varying levels of adult support and intervention.

Areas of study:

• EYFS  - children remember and talk about significant events, both past and present, in their own lives.
• In KS1 – the children learn about the lifetime of their grandparents and significant changes and events beyond living memory. These include: Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole’s role in improving the standards of nursing during the Crimean War, The Great Fire of London, as well as national and international historical periods and events which allow us to compare similarities and differences between how people lived in the past and now.
• In KS2 – history is taught chronologically and is themed around tyrants through history. Each topic relates to how civilisations shaped and influenced British history and include: Bronze age to Iron Age, The Ancient Greeks, The Egyptians, The Romans, The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, The Victorians (Titus Salt), WWII and The Maya.

Assessment

• Short-term assessments aim to assess the children’s learning on a lesson by lesson basis and are key to our curriculum. These could include observations of groups, analysis of whole class feedback, the marking of work or short tests, either in written or oral form. Teachers often note informal assessment data onto their plans.
• At the end of a unit of work, formal assessment data is completed in the foundation subject assessment folder and highlights those children who are work above/below the nationally expected standard for the objectives covered.
• Long-term assessments assess our children against national expectations. These are summative judgements made by the class teacher based on the data recorded in the foundation subject assessment folder throughout the year. These are used to provide extra information about individual children’s attainment and progress so that the teacher can report to the next teacher and the child’s parent.  These individual pupil results are entered into OTrack (a data management system) at the end of each academic year.

Monitoring

There is an ongoing system of monitoring which takes place throughout the academic year. The focus of this monitoring is linked to the school development plan and whole school development priorities. Monitoring focuses specifically on the teaching and learning of history and includes: classroom observations, discussions with staff and pupils, looking at planning and examples of children’s work (books). The results of monitoring inform next steps and subsequent action planning, and are noted on the subject leader audit completed at the end of the academic year.

Impact – What knowledge and skills are obtained?

At Tranmere Park, every pupil will:

• Believe that they are good historians and ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
• Complete a pre-test which checks existing knowledge and identifies gaps in their understanding so that we are certain about the individual goals of each child. This way, by the end of Year 6, we will endeavour for all children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, in addition to being curious to know more about the past.
• Be excited to learn about the past and expand their understanding of the world around them.
• Be analytical thinkers who ask inquisitive questions about their local area, political landscape and understand the key cornerstones of Britain’s history.
• Be exposed to high quality teaching, designed to captivate and stimulate their curiosity.
• Develop enquiry skills to pursue their own interests within the topics and further questioning.

Further to the above, our Curriculum, at Tranmere Park, is designed to ensure that each and every child achieves or demonstrates the following: