Curriculum Intent

History at Welland Primary School

 The national curriculum for history aims 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.

Our intention at Welland Primary is for history to be taught in discrete lessons and cross curricular lessons to ensure the children are able to develop a passion for history and become empowered by a curiosity to find out what has happened in the past and why.  Where possible, the teachers plan history lessons around a central topic or theme to be explored in class, on trips and visits and through the use of artefacts.  We link our art and design technology themes to our history topics and where possible, we also further history learning using relevant literature in English and guided reading lessons. 

Through our history lessons, we give our pupils an excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.  We model and encourage the ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas very confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.  We teach the ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.  We develop pupils’ ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry. Our interesting and cross curricular lessons instil a passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways. We engender a respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgments. We also give the pupils a desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics.

We have broken down history into what we believe are the core elements or threshed concepts. Our threshold concepts for history are:

• Investigate and interpret the past: This concept involves understanding that our understanding of the past comes from an interpretation of the available evidence.
• Build an overview of world history: This concept involves an appreciation of the characteristic features of the past and an understanding that life is different for different sections of society.
• Understand chronology: This concept involves an understanding of how to chart the passing of time and how some aspects of history studied were happening at similar times in different places.
• Communicate historically: This concept involves using historical vocabulary and techniques to convey information about the past.

History in our classrooms

You will see:

● Children engaged and excited by history

● Children using a range of different historical sources

● Practical, hands on experience on computers, iPads and alternative forms of technology to further their learning.

● Children working collaboratively

● Children evaluating different points of view from history

● Children communicating their historical understanding in a variety of ways

You will hear:

● Children evaluating and developing their understanding of how historical sources could be used

● Children excited and passionate about learning about the past

● Children debating the reliability of different historical sources

● Children confidently presenting their work using key vocabulary accurately

You will feel:

● A classroom climate where mistakes are valued and part of the deepening our understanding

● Children building their understanding of how an understanding of history can inform how we view the modern world

● That children are passionate to know more

● That children are proud of their history work