Intent

This policy outlines our approach to delivering History to reflect the aims of the school’s action plan. It sets out a framework to guide all staff. This policy compliments the 2014 national curriculum and the EYFS framework. 

Stratton Primary School aims to deliver a rich and purposeful history curriculum to inspire a curiosity in pupils so that they are fascinated about the world and its people. This will help to ensure that pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.  Our goal is to inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past and how we can learn from it in the future. 

During Key Stage 1, pupils will develop an awareness of the past, using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They will find out where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. They will use a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms. They will be encouraged to ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events. 

During Key Stage 2, pupils learn about significant people, events and places from both recent and more distant past. They learn about change and continuity in their own area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history in a variety of ways, for example from political, economic, technological and scientific, social, religious, cultural or aesthetic perspectives. They use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in overview, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. They also learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways. 

Implementation

Teaching and Learning: 

The Stratton Curriculum is underpinned by the 2014 National Curriculum.  Teachers’ planning is supported by the history progression of skills document and curriculum map.  History is delivered in a way that is sequenced towards cumulative knowledge and skills, building on prior learning. 

To support planning, teachers will use medium-term plans created by the subject lead.   

History sometimes drives a topic in a classroom, or is taught discretely. Teachers should aim to deliver a history lesson weekly when it is part of their topic.  

During each learning sequence, teachers will look for opportunities to link topics to other areas of the curriculum. Progression in children’s learning across the school will be in line with the school’s progressions of skills in history document. Learning activities will look at developing chronological, substantive and disciplinary knowledge. All pupils will have the opportunity to work individually, in groups and as a whole class. Teachers will therefore identify individual pupil needs and differentiate tasks and activities to facilitate this. 

Learning will be recorded in a range of ways: by writing, photographs and timelines. 

Chronology will be referred to at the start of each history topic. Each class will have a timeline display in class to refer to throughout history topics. The goal of this is to place events in their proper order, so they can be studied and understood in their historical context.   

In KS1, knowledge organisers are developed by the class teacher and discussed with children as the topic moves on. In KS2, children will create knowledge organisers at the start of each topic and refer the these at the start of each lesson to review and add what they have learned. 

The curriculum leader will arrange staff and training meetings according to need. 

Every classroom will have a timeline on display that continues to develop across the year, adding new time periods as they are taught, allowing children to see a clear chronology. Clear links should be made between different time periods.

Inclusion: 

Stratton Primary School endeavours to provide an inclusive curriculum to ensure all children are successful in accessing their learning allowing them to make progress from their starting point. Pupils with SEND are assessed regularly so that teachers can scaffold the learning to ensure all children progress. In order to best support pupils with SEND, we strive to provide a variety of provision, including:  

• Providing access to differentiated and scaffolded learning resources and equipment  

• Chunking instructions ensuring they are clear and succinct and allowing thinking time to ensure appropriate progress can be made from the child’s starting point  

• Using partner talk throughout inputs to encourage children to share their ideas  

• Repeating activities in order to encourage retrieval practice and supporting children’s working memory  

• Using flexible grouping  

• Asking children to assess their own understanding of an objective    

• Ensuring that all children can access outdoor learning opportunities and trips 

• Adapting learning to ensure all pupils can access the history curriculum 

The National Curriculum objectives (in bold) are covered through the topics taught (knowledge organisers are available at the bottom of the page in order to help support your child's learning):

Impact

Children at Stratton Primary School will be confident and able to talk about what they have learnt in history using subject specific vocabulary and be able to link knowledge of different time periods, showing an awareness of chronology. Teachers will assess the children’s progress informally and formally during the lessons, evaluating progress against the expectations of the National Curriculum. All teachers report pupil attainment annually to parents. The policy also supports the development of teachers’ practice.