History

Subject Lead: Mrs D Laviolette

Link LAC Member: Mr R Webster

History Intent

At Bishopton Redmarshall C of E Primary School, we aim to provide a high-quality history education that will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past through engaging and purposeful topics. Our teaching aims to encourage pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Through our history curriculum, we aim to help pupils understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. We want children to enjoy and love learning about history at Bishopton Redmarshall. We want history to come alive not just through experiences in the classroom, but also with the use of fieldwork and educational visits.

Implementation

History is taught through a topic-based approach linking together other subject areas. Strong connections are made with the English curriculum where by texts are chosen that link with the area of study. We aim to ensure in-depth contextual learning in order to widen pupils’ historical understanding.

Each topic leads to an enquiry-based question to engage pupil’s curiosity. Teachers plan a sequence of lessons using high quality resources to ensure full coverage of national curriculum requirements. CPD is on-going. Resources are regularly reviewed, and access to new schemes of work are made available to support the continued development of a teacher’s own knowledge and understanding of history. In addition, all staff have access to the Historical Association Online, which offers high quality CPD from EYFS to Upper KS2.

At the beginning of each unit of work, pupil’s prior knowledge is discussed, and clear targets are set which pupils use as a self-assessment tool at the end of each lesson. New vocabulary is introduced throughout the unit of work, which is clearly defined and clarified so that pupils can use it in context. In order to embed their new knowledge and understanding into their long-term memory, opportunities are given to regularly recap and review their learning through questioning, quizzes and the use of classroom displays. By the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British and world history from the Stone Age to present day.

The local area is also fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes, with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.

The outcomes of work are monitored to ensure that they reflect a sound understanding of the key knowledge, skills and understanding of the history curriculum.

Impact

By the time children at Bishopton Redmarshall leave our school they should have developed:

A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
An understanding of how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
The ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
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.
The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity and understanding of the past.