History
Intent
At St Joseph's, our intent is to ignite a passion for History and to equip our children with the historical knowledge, skills and concepts to become the next generation of historians. We encourage children to be curious and excited to learn about Britain’s past and that of the wider world and to understand that History could also shape their future. A high-quality History curriculum encompasses topics which aim to foster awe and wonder and drive children to ask questions linked to the period of time they are studying. Through our teaching of History, we aim to equip children with both the tools and confidence to ask questions, reflect critically, challenge viewpoints and develop their own judgements based on historical evidence.
Implementation
We use well chosen topics to develop historical knowledge,skills and concepts that encourage children to work as historians. As well as this, we teach additional chronology sessions so that children are reminded of when the various periods in history have occured and how each has followed and built upon the previous ones. Links are made whenever relevant between periods in history and the legacies that they left.
We intend for our children to learn about History in an active and creative way. Our aims is to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for History, providing a broad and balanced curriculum that encompasses the British Values throughout, ensuring the development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills and for the children to study life in the past. A range of resources will be used that will bring history to life and includes photographs, diaries, newspaper articles, music and the handling of real artefacts from the past. Excursions, visiting experts and outdoor teaching will enhance the learning experiences even further. History is taught termly in each year group, alternating half termly with Geography. Dedicated chronology lessons continue during the half term that history is not being taught, ensuring that children are enabled to remember what they have learned and when it took place in the past.
History is taught for half a term throughout Key Stage 1 and Key stage 2, alternating with Geography. During the half term that History is not being taught, staff revisit key knowledge and concepts with the children alongside holding discrete chronology sessions. This revisiting of prior learning helps the children to retain knowledge and understanding of key aspects of the periods studied, when they occured and how they link to eachother and to today's societies.
Impact
Through our carefully designed curriculum, the History topics will help children to gain an understanding of the complexity of people’s lives and the process of change, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school. By the end of Year 6, children will have a love of history and a secure chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They are able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Romans.