History

Intent

• To provide an engaging curriculum that is board, balanced and progressive.
• To provide our children with a variety of sequenced knowledge.
• To develop progressive skills in chronological understanding, historical enquiry, historical interpretation, the knowledge of continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity and difference, diversity, and significant people/events.
• To promote our school values which are closely linked to British values.
• To offer children new and exciting experiences and opportunities.
• To prepare our children for the next steps in their learning journey.

Implementation

History teaching focuses on enabling children to think as historians. Our principal aim is to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in history. We believe that children learn best when:

·        They have access to, and are able to handle artefacts.

·        They go on visits to sites of historical significance and places of interest.

·        They have access to secondary sources such as books and photographs.

·        They can talk to visitors/family members about their personal experience of the past.

·        They listen to and interact with stories from the past.

·        They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos.

·        They are able to use non-fiction books for research.

·        They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer                  historical questions.

·        They are able to identify themes in historical learning and are able to make links between different time                 periods as well as use knowledge from other areas of the curriculum.

We recognise that we have children of differing abilities in History and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities by matching the challenge of the task to the child’s ability. We achieve this by:

·        Setting open-ended tasks which can have a variety of responses.

·        Grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each ability group.

·        Providing resources of different complexity depending on the ability of the child.

·        Using Teaching Assistants to support children individually or in groups.

·        Organising children in such a way that they receive support from their peers.

·        Intervention to improve memory.

We enrich our history curriculum by having exciting trips to museums and places of historical significance. We have historical workshops within school as well as historical theme days. Children have engaged in a ‘Horrible Histories’ extra-curricular club and Nicol Mere hosts History Inter School Challenges.

Impact



At Nicol Mere, we recognise the unique needs of each child and support them in reaching their potential. We have a supportive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. The impact of our History curriculum is measured in the experiences, confidence and competence of our children within the subject. We ensure children receive the experiences they require, both within and beyond the curriculum, to develop their skills and knowledge and become confident historians. By revisiting historical concepts, children will deepen their understanding and be able to identify links and be able to relate periods of history together. Progress in History throughout Nicol Mere is outstanding. 

History Curriculum and Knowledge Organisers