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History
Intent
Our aim at Bandon Hill Primary School is to encourage pupils to develop an appreciation and understanding of the past, evaluating a range of primary and secondary sources. Our historians will be inspired to know more about the past.
Through planned topics, children have opportunities to build a chronologically secure understanding of British history, as well as that of the wider world. Through carefully planned, progressive lessons, pupils are taught about the significance of different historical periods, key historical figures and how History has influenced their lives today. In understanding periods, events and people from the past, our children will gain cultural capital and have a greater appreciation of today’s world and their place within it. History on a world scale as well as on a personal scale will build awareness of children’s own heritage and enable them to be aspirational about the role they can play in the future.
Our overarching intention is that our children learn both about History and from History adopting a curiosity and awareness of how History has been interpreted by different people at different times. Children will understand how the past informs the future and how the past has impacted our own lives and experiences.
Implementation
The National Curriculum is used to plan and deliver the teaching of History at Bandon Hill Primary School in an organised and progressive way. History is taught weekly during alternate half terms (alternating with Geography) and the sequence of learning is carefully mapped and planned. Carefully planned topics ensure there is a progression of historical skills and knowledge across the school with teachers planning engaging lessons that follow our progression of knowledge and skills document. Each unit of History learning starts with an overarching enquiry question which will stimulate historical enquiry and enable children to investigate the issues and ideas behind it.
Our children’s journey historians starts in EYFS where children begin to think about special events in their own lives. In EYFS, our children start with themselves by discovering who they are and how they belong to their family and that of the wider community. Through story telling and narrative, they learn about life stories and how their story fits into the family to which they belong as well as to the wider world. The children look at photographs and pictures of their early life and that of their parents and grandparents. This will enable them to recognise the past and what the past looks like for them. It will help them to develop an early understanding of chronology and the language of now and then. Identifying what is similar and what is different will help our children to describe how change takes place over time.
As our children move into Key Stage 1, they will begin to develop chronological understanding by learning about changes that have taken place in living memory by using timelines to create an historical narrative. They will use the language of similarity and difference to compare what life was life for their parents and grandparents and how it has changed over the last century. This will enable them to draw simple conclusions about change over time. Through being able to identify and understanding change, they will look for evidence to discover the history of space travel. Children will be introduced to the lives of significant individuals who have made an impact on our country and have changed and inspired the lives of others. Our children will learn how to identify the different ways that there are to represent and interpret the past. Using artefacts, picture, photographs, diaries, letters and stories our children will move to Key Stage 2 with the ability to identify and question the effectiveness of sources.
History in Key Stage 2 will build on the children’s knowledge of Britain’s past and the wider world. They build upon their foundations from Key Stage 1 and are able to ask meaningful questions, think critically, understand chronology and gain historical perspective by making connections between the topics that they have learnt. The children at Bandon Hill will continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of chronology by using timelines to place events on as well as comparing the units of work that they are studying with other periods. They will look at similarity and difference by comparing what they discover about the lives of other people in the past with their lives today. They will use evidence to suggest the reasons how and why people acted in the way that they did. Children will be introduced to more complex terms such as BCE and AD. They will learn about Britain’s first builders and the changes that occurred between the Stone Age and the Iron Age. They will compare and contrast ancient civilisations through their study of the Ancient Greeks and the Mayans, using their oracy skills to communicate their findings. In Upper Key Stage 2 the children will be introduced to primary and secondary sources and through a thematic study such as how crime and punishment have changed through history, they will use their research skills to link sources and work out how and why conclusions were reached. They will be given the opportunity to reflect on evidence and to consider ways of checking the accuracy of interpretation and whether these are fact, fiction or opinion.
As part of our focus on oracy, we use various oracy strategies to make the learning more meaningful and memorable. Children take part is historical debates and present information to their peers. Vocabulary is progressively taught across the school to ensure children’s historical vocabulary expands and develops during their time at Bandon Hill. At the start of each topic children complete ‘Never Head the Word’ where they are exposed to vocabulary they will be coving during the upcoming topic and they are encourage to define these words accurately.
Impact
By the time the children leave Bandon Hill, they should have developed:
- A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
- Pupils will have a strong chronological understanding of historical events, making connections between these.
- 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.
- The ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
- A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
- A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
Click here to see our skills progression document
Click here to see our national curriculum coverage grid map.
Click here to see the National Curriculum Programme of Study for history.
Click here to see our history long term plan.
Useful websites
https://www.historyforkids.net/