History

Subject Coordinator: Mrs L Cleminson

At Woodhouse Primary Academy we recognise the vital role that an engaging and purposeful History curriculum has in order to develop their knowledge of how the past shapes the present and future, their ability to think critically, make links and ask probing questions as well as develop an understanding and pride of their local, national and global heritage. It is our intention to help pupils at Woodhouse Primary Academy to develop a coherent knowledge and understanding of the past. Our History curriculum has been designed to allow children to have the opportunity to learn through varied historical sources, leading them to develop their historical enquiry and questioning. As children progress through year groups, they build on their skills and knowledge gained from previous year groups in chronological understanding, exploring sources, using clues and understanding how the past shapes the present.

Within our EYFS, children’s History skills are challenged through ongoing levelled continuous provision and targeted implicit and explicit challenges linked to the EYFS framework.  We start with children’s simple understanding of the passing of time e.g. before/after, now/next and this is built and developed upon. 

Our History Curriculum has been designed to provide pupils with opportunities to learn about the past in the context of their local area and promote the study of diverse people of significance. We believe that by engaging the children in studies of the history of their local area in topics such as ‘Why is their a castle in my town?’ ‘How did Coal Mining Impact County Durham’ and ‘How did Migration improve the North East’, pupils will learn a deep understanding about our local heritage and history allowing them to appreciate and have pride in our local area as well as to make links with the wider history of the nation and world.

Teachers are supported to develop strong subject knowledge in History and to become role models for historical enquiry for our pupils. Our teachers use a wide range of age-appropriate strategies to create lessons that are effective, enjoyable and memorable. All history lessons are clearly linked to a historical skill and provide opportunities to make links between past learning for our pupils.

Lessons are carefully sequenced and planned in order to provide opportunities of our children to overlearn and deepen their understanding. Opportunities for enrichment events, visitors and trips to local historical museums and sites of interest have been carefully planned and sequenced, with a trip planned for each year group each academic year designed to deepen their understanding of the period of history studied within their year group.

The History curriculum in our school has been designed to equip our pupils with core historical knowledge with a focus on making links between exploration and innovation over time, settlements and culture over time and through examining local history, local achievement and how diversity and change has helped to create our modern society. The children in our school enjoy exploring how the world has changed over the different periods of History. Learning the facts and figures associated with different time periods enable our pupils to build a picture of how the world has evolved from the past to the present.

Each of our history topics is framed with an ‘enquiry question’. Where possible and relevant, children are exposed to a variety historical evidence allowing for classes to make further enquiries, investigation, analysis, interpretations and evaluations of the information they are presented with. We want to make our pupils feel like they are going on an adventure, picking up clues and questioning those clues and what they tell us about the past about the topic along the way. As a result, pupils show great excitement when learning about different periods of time.

It is vital for our pupils to develop a sense of which periods precede and follow one another. At the beginning of each new History topic, children will be shown where this period of History falls within the overall timeline. In addition to this, there are regular opportunities to review learning that has taken place in previous History topics. This enables the pupils to make comparisons between eras and understand how and why the world has changed over time.

Our pupils are exposed to historical vocabulary from a very early age. Key subject vocabulary is identified for each History topic and this vocabulary is always displayed on the children’s topic display board and referred to regularly during the lessons. As a result, the children use this vocabulary with accuracy and confidence in their learning.

Pupils are provided with ample opportunity to discuss their views about events that occurred in the past and the way these events have shaped the present. It is valuable for our learners to not just be given the information and simply retain it, but for them to share their opinions, voice their queries, make conclusions and show empathy where appropriate.

We ensure that children are learning by checking understanding through spaced retrieval exercises, through book looks which are regularly undertaken and short ‘learning walks’ which take place each term that History is taught in. Teachers use informal assessments within lessons at the end of units to gain understanding and shape teaching and learning.

HISTORY LONG TERM PLAN