History

At St. Joseph’s, we are HISTORIANS! We want our children to love history. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be archivists, museum curators, archaeologists or research analysts. Our aim is that, through the teaching of History, we stimulate all children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We teach children a sense of chronology, in order to develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. This enables our children to learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain. We aim to make all children aware of the actions of important people in history and enable children to know about significant events in British history, whilst appreciating how things have changed over time. History will also ensure our children understand how Britain developed as a society, contributing to their understanding of their country of residence. Furthermore, our children will learn about aspects of local, British and Ancient history. This wider awareness leads to the children having some knowledge of historical development in the wider world. We believe that by allowing the children to understand the importance and enjoyment of History through different opportunities, they will become enthused learners in History. In History at our school, we will also give children opportunities to develop their skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, interpretation and problem solving.

At St. Joseph’s we aim to:

• Foster in the children an interest in the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer.
• Enable children to know about significant events in British history and to appreciate how things have changed over time.
• Develop a sense of chronology.
• Study local history.
• Understand how Britain is part of a wider European culture, and to study some aspects of European culture.
• Have some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world.
• Help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage.
• Develop in children the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.
• Communicate historical information in a variety of ways.

Our history curriculum aims to excite the children and to develop their own skills as historians. We encourage regular references to timelines so that children can see how topics fit together.

We want to bring history alive with a hands-on approach involving artefacts and enrichment days where possible.

History is taught in blocks to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.

• History lessons begin with an action timeline which includes add-ons from previous years teaching. Using timelines as a teaching strategy helps children construct an understanding of historical events over time. It supports the children in their ability to know more and remember more. They are given regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons. At the start of each topic the children will also review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic.
• We use artefacts as a WOW to start off a topic as well as throughout the topic. This engages children and encourages them to become historians. Artefacts also help pupils to ask questions and understand the past.
• We use ICT to support learning and encourage cross-curricular links within writing, computing and maths.
• An adapted action timeline is used at the end of a topic so that the children know where their topic fits in history and in relation to other prior learning of history.
• We ensure a verity of key figures are studied making a conscious effort to include significant women.
• We include the use of high quality resources; the library service offers many different topic boxes to loan, and we also aim to gradually build up resources over time so that we have a supply in school.
• The children’s knowledge and understanding of a topic is assessment at the end of the topic and recorded on Insight.

EYFS

The Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum supports children’s understanding of History through the planning and teaching of ‘Understanding the World’. This aspect is about how children find out about past and present events in their own lives, their families and other people they know. Children are encouraged to develop a sense of change over time and are given opportunities to differentiate between past and present by observing routines throughout the day, growing plants, observing the passing of seasons and time and looking at photographs of their life and of others. Practitioners encourage investigative behaviour and raise questions such as, ‘What do you think?', ‘Tell me more about?', 'What will happen if..?', ‘What else could we try?', ‘What could it be used for?' and ‘How might it work?' Use of language relating to time is used in daily routines and conversations with children for example, ‘yesterday', ‘old', ‘past', ‘now' and ‘then'.

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The impact of this curriculum design will lead to outstanding progress over time across key stages relative to a child’s individual starting point and their progression of skills. Children will therefore be expected to leave St. Joseph’s reaching at least age-related expectations for History. We hope that the importance placed on our history curriculum, along with the passion from creative, enthusiastic teachers, will also lead pupils to be enthusiastic history learners; evidenced in a range of ways, including pupil voice and their work.