At St James School, 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 interested in the past and the legacy is has had upon Britain and our local area.

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. Teaching children about our local history and important historical figures is key to inspiring our little historians. 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. 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 and analysis.

History Implementation

• At St James Primary School, history is taught in every year group through topic lessons.
• Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
• We have developed a progression of skills across each year group, which enables pupils to build on and develop their skills each year.
• In KS1, history begins by looking at the children’s own personal history and introduces them to the idea of chronology and timelines. They will learn about significant events and people who have shaped society, locally, nationally and globally.
• In KS2, each year group studies aspects of local history, a British history topic and an ancient history topic.
• UK history is taught chronologically to allow children to confidently place each time period. This allows pupils to consistently build on previous knowledge and learning by placing previously taught history topics on a timeline.
• In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
• Medium term planning for all units will cover the primary historical concepts of society and community, exploration, invasion and power, conflict and disclosure. Secondary concepts include: chronology, evidence and interpretation, cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarities and differences and historical significance.
• Children are given opportunities, where possible, to study artefacts leading to enquiry, investigation, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and presentation.
• We plan for effective use of educational visits and visitors, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experience and the history curriculum.
• Teachers use highly effective assessment for learning at different points in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed.
• Effective modelling by teachers ensures that children are able to achieve their learning intentions, with misconceptions addressed within it.
• Through using a range of assessment tools, teaching and learning is adapted by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the history curriculum.
• Educational, immersive displays that answer key questions help to create a rich learning environment for each history focus.
• At the end of each topic the children complete quizzes and in KS2 they complete an essay style piece of writing to share their new knowledge and findings.
• Our assessment tracker (Insight) allows us to use data to inform track achievement and inform future practice.

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'.

History Impact

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 James Primary School reaching at least age-related expectations in history. Our history curriculum will also lead pupils to be enthusiastic history learners, evidenced in a range of ways, including pupil voice and their work.

If you want further information about the curriculum content your child is covering please call the school office to arrange an appointment to see the subject leader.