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History

‘We are not makers of history. We are made by history.’

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Intent

History lessons at Dringhouses draw on the local area and first hand experiences for the children wherever possible to help develop methods of historical enquiry including using evidence. We follow exciting learning projects which help children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past and encourage children to ask questions about the past. The topics are cross-curricular which help children connect to the period in history more easily.

In line with the National Curriculum programme of study for history, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

  • Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
  • Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
  • Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
  • Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
  • Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
  • Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

Breadth and opportunity 
All pupils have equal access to the history curriculum regardless of gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, disability, age and social circumstances.

Implementation

Implementation: As a whole school, we ensure all areas of the National Curriculum are covered in depth and that there is a clear progression of skills (see planning, children’s work and progression grids).

Objectives are covered appropriately to ensure key skills and knowledge are revisited in different ways including role-play, drama, presentations, individual and group activities to encourage and enthuse children e.g KS1 brought the fire of London to life with a model the children had made of pudding lane being set on fire in the playground.

Planning is monitored by team-leaders and the history lead who is available to support throughout the process of planning and teaching. Key vocabulary is displayed in the classroom and sent as a knowledge organiser.

We recap learning each lesson and build on this through the term. We have a class ‘learning journey’ so if the topic is history related, key questions are displayed for the term and revisited each lesson. This will in time aid children’s understanding and help to commit the learning to their long term memory.

We assess children’s work in history by making informal judgements as we observe them during each history lesson. At the end of a unit of work, the teacher makes a summary judgement about the work of each pupil if they have yet to obtain, have met or have exceeded the unit objectives. We use this as a basis for assessing the progress of the child at the end of the year. Each child’s progress is reported termly to their family, in the termly report, and recorded on Insight

Links are made between periods in History and a timeline is available in each class room to refer to.

Contribution across the curriculum: As History forms the basis of many of our learning projects we make many cross curricular links particularly through reading. We chose high quality historical fiction and non-fiction texts e.g. The Secrets of a Sun King (UKS2) linking to Egypt. The Riddle of the Runes LKS2 linking to Vikings. 

Please see our History Curriculum Progression Plan here.

Our History subject leader is Miss Jess Burgess.

Please contact her for further information.

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