History

Subject co-ordinator: Miss Kelly

 Intent

Our aim is to teach children that they are historians; through this, we aim to equip them with the knowledge and skills to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence and develop their own perspective and judgement. Our high-quality history curriculum enables them to gain a coherent understanding of Britain’s past and how it links with the wider world. Through their education at St Polycarp’s, children develop a strong understanding of the history of their locality through the lens of local legends, famous historical figures and an in depth study of the school’s origins. These themes are then built upon through national and international history. 

Approach

Our history curriculum is structured to use a mastery approach to learning. Through carefully constructed sequences and links between concepts, children build on prior learning progressively and learn through immersion. To achieve this children learn in varied ways, from mnemonics, acting and re-enacting to testing, challenging and debating hypotheses. This way, children can explicitly link ideas and retain information with greater ability to recall and interpret.

Enrichment

School trips, local visits, visiting speakers and celebrations are just some of the ways in which children gain a full picture of our history curriculum. We want our children to see themselves as historians and so construct situations that will require them to develop this attitude.

Challenge/support

Using Blooms driver vocabulary, ideas are explore to enable all children to dig deeper with their historical learning. Children will go from remembering facts, to applying this knowledge to questions before building this into more challenging learning opportunities where they have to reason, justify, evaluate and create. This structured approach means all of our young historians are included and can access the learning!

History Learning Journey KS1 and EYFS

History Learning Journey KS2