Kentisbeare C of E Primary School

Kentisbeare Primary School Curriculum Policy for History

September 2021

History at Kentisbeare

History has always been held in high regard at Kentisbeare School. The rich history of the school itself, and its context within our local area, is a celebrated and inspiring feature of our school. Our curriculum draws from the immediate and wider locality, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of where we live and go to school.

Our topics are informed by the national curriculum and have been carefully planned to ensure there are clear links and progression throughout the school, and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy. At Kentisbeare our curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world
• Are encouraged to be “curious” about the past
• Are taught and encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence and develop perspective and judgement.
• Are taught key skills in historical enquiry,  analysis, evaluation and argument.
• Being to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the processes of change and continuity, the diversity of societies as well as their own identity and challenges of their time.

Implementation:

At Kentisbeare, we implement a curriculum throughout the whole school to ensure high standards of teaching and learning. History is taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills as stated in the National Curriculum.

Our curriculum at Kentisbeare is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum, which provides a broad framework of study and outlines key knowledge and skills taught in each Key Stage. When planning, teachers refer to our school’s progression and skills document which ensures that content and key skills are developed and built upon from year group to year group.

History provides many learning opportunities for children at Kentisbeare; there are themed “History Days”, school trips and educational visits, where learning is taken beyond the classroom. We have also built strong links with our local museums, who are eager to share artefacts and learning resources to enhance the learning of our curriculum and provide more extensive, hands-on learning opportunities.

Impact

Within history, we strive to create a supportive ethos for learning by providing enquiry-based learning opportunities. Children will experience an enquiry-based topic, moving from “Teacher-Lead” enquiries in KS1 to more “Child-Lead” enquiries as they progress into KS2; these provide learning opportunities to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of each topic throughout the school.

Through the high quality first teaching of History taking place, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways;

Through pupil voice, children will be able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more. Children will complete research independently through projects and homework and to further their own enjoyment about the subject or topic.

As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in History will be high and will match standards in other subject areas.