our vision for history

History Curriculum Rationale

At Crompton 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. The history curriculum has been carefully designed so that our pupils develop their historical knowledge of Britain and its influence on and from the wider world.  We want all our pupils to remember their history learning in our school, to cherish these experiences and embrace the opportunities they are presented with.

Curriculum Intent

The history curriculum promotes curiosity and a love and thirst for learning. It is ambitious and empowers our pupils to become independent and resilient.

We want to equip pupils with ambition beyond the minimum statutory requirements of the history National Curriculum and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. The curriculum is meticulously planned with the intention to address social disadvantage and ensure that all pupils - including those with SEND - have an opportunity to engage with a challenging curriculum and achieve success. Any gaps in pupils’ knowledge are quickly identified and addressed to ensure that pupils are supported to meet the ambitious intended end points of the curriculum in history. We have designed the curriculum as a school and therefore the curriculum is unique to our school and meets the needs of our pupils and our context.

The history curriculum is focused upon the development of substantive and disciplinary knowledge. History is progressively sequenced to ensure that pupils’ knowledge of chronology, and substantive concepts are built over time and ready them for their next steps in learning.  This enables an understanding of different historical periods and the complexities of peoples’ lives in a range of societies. Through routes of enquiry, pupils learn the discipline of history and apply their knowledge and skills to think and work as an historian. Significant events, people, places and the interrelationships of these across time are studied to support the pupils’ building of knowledge of how historians have analysed the past and drawn conclusions. This supports pupils to appreciate the importance of valid historical practice and the ways in which the past has been interpreted to further develop our understanding of significant points in time that have shaped local, British and world history.

We want our pupils to use the vibrancy of our great town and wider city to learn from other cultures, respect diversity, co-operate with one another and appreciate what they have. We achieve this by providing strong local contextual links where possible. For example, the curriculum offers a study of the life of a Victorian child working in a local mill, (which is located a short distance away from the school), we learn about ‘why’ children were used in the cotton industry and then use the learned disciplines to analyse the ‘how’ we know about this.

British Values and our core values are placed at the heart of everything we do. This often feeds into the history curriculum. Cultural capital development is addressed through museum visits, (such as a Staircase House visit during the Fire of London unit of work) online exploration, workshops in school and first-hand experiences. We enrich pupils’ time in our school with memorable, unforgettable experiences and provide opportunities to engender an appreciation of human endeavour and achievement.

Curriculum Implementation

We effectively develop and invest in our teaching staff to ensure that they are fully equipped with expert subject knowledge in order to support the delivery of the exceptional history curriculum. Teaching is highly effective for all pupils. Teachers present the curriculum content clearly through composites and component parts supported by unit booklets, which break the unit knowledge, concepts and skills down for each lesson in each year group.

The curriculum is delivered through a subject specific approach, which supports pupils to develop the key concepts and knowledge of the history curriculum. Each lesson within a unit of work is carefully crafted and builds upon what has been previously taught from one year to the next.

Frequent audits of the history curriculum take place. Following the findings from these audits, the history curriculum is adapted to build upon the learning opportunities and assessment end points for each year group and ensures progression and repetition in terms of embedding key learning, knowledge and skills.  The way history is taught follows a specific and consistent structure.

Pupils’ curiosity is inspired through the igniting of prior learning and the manner historical content is delivered. Pupils’ engage in the knowledge, skills and experiences involved in a unit and deepen their understanding to record their opinions, analyses and to review and revisit ideas. This process is replicated for each history unit. The way each discipline is taught is revisited in each phase, at a progressively deeper level.

History subject specific characteristics, which we expect the pupils to demonstrate, have been developed and shared with all stakeholders. These characteristics underpin all work in history and form a focal point for display areas and provide a common subject specific vocabulary for staff and pupils. These characteristics are:

• To gain a coherent knowledge and chronology of Britain’s past and the wider world
• To ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement about events in history
• To appreciate the complexities of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups of people as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time
• To know and understand the history of our islands as a coherent, chronological narrative from the earliest times to present day
• To know the significant aspects of ancient civilisations, and the expansion and dissolution of empires
• To develop an awareness of concepts such as: continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance and use them to make connections
• To understand methods of historical enquiry
• To understand connections between local, regional, national and international history

The teaching of the history curriculum is planned and delivered to support pupils to transfer key knowledge into their long-term memory and therefore improve the progress they make. Essential vocabulary is identified within each lesson and unit of work to ensure that our pupils can discuss and analyse the history content effectively.

Whilst delivering the curriculum, teachers are constantly checking to ensure that pupils are learning the necessary knowledge and identifying and addressing misunderstandings. Assessment is used as a tool to support pupil learning.

The history curriculum is research evidence informed in relation to the content, delivery and process of learning.

Curriculum Impact

We use both formative and summative assessment information in history. Assessment informs learning to ensure that all pupils including disadvantage and those with SEND achieve highly and acquire the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. Staff use assessment information to inform their short-term planning and address misconceptions. This helps us provide the best possible support for all of our pupils. The end points for each phase have been carefully mapped out and further broken down. This means that the essential knowledge, skills and concepts in history are progressive and build year on year.

Our well-constructed curriculum in history leads to pupils’ successful learning. This is evidenced in the outcomes within workbooks and display work produced. Pupils are well prepared for the next steps and stages of their learning due to the progressive and well-sequenced curriculum. As a result, pupils make excellent progress; they know more and remember more as they move through the history curriculum at Crompton Primary.