History

History at St Chad’s begins in the EYFS. In the early years, children start to understand key concepts such as chronology and similarity and difference. They do this by exploring the ‘past’ and ‘now’ in the context of their own and their family’s history. They also understand the past through the settings, characters, and events they encounter in the books which they read in class.

The key knowledge, concepts and skills learnt in EYFS are built upon in Key Stage 1. In Key Stage 1, our children continue to develop an awareness of the past by using historical vocabulary and they learn about some of the ways we can find out about the past. They study significant events and people from the past and identify the similarities and differences between different eras. Chronology is key when our children learn a new topic therefore when children are introduced to a new time period, they understand where this fits into the timeline. We ensure that in Key Stage 2, our children continue to develop their understanding of chronology by studying a wider range of British history, local history and world history. Historical enquiry skills are developed further as they ask and answer meaningful questions, think critically and make connections between topics.

At St Chad’s we deliver a high-quality topic-based approach to ensure history is taught as either a half-termly or termly topic, focusing on the statutory requirements stated in the National Curriculum.
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 history lesson starts with a retrieval practice activity to ensure children’s learning is continuously revisited and is stored in their long-term memory and to ensure teachers can address misconceptions early on. It also enables our children to make connections between the historical topics that they have learnt previously. Knowledge acquisition is also assessed at the end of the whole topic when children complete a Topic Knowledge Wall quiz. In each history lesson, we also use ambitious and subject-specific language. Key words are introduced or recapped at the start of each lesson. To ensure children are confident with the historical skills that they are learning, a skills mat is also referred to at the start of each lesson.

The centre of our history curriculum is the use of deep thinking questions as lesson drivers. These deep thinking questions allow the children to weigh evidence, scrutinise arguments, make connections and develop their own judgement.

In addition to our history curriculum, our children have wider opportunities to experience history. Children are able to experience ‘WOW Days’ which hook them into a topic and educational visits and visitors play a key role in helping children to understand history in the context of real life. To encourage learning at home, our half termly learning logs are also sent home, these are topic based and enable all children to access activities which draw on their creative skills and passion for learning more about a subject.