History

History

Intent: What are we trying to achieve?

Our curriculum aims to support our children to develop an awareness of significant events and individuals and recognise how things have changed over time. We aim to ignite this curiosity and want our pupils to feel confident to ask and answer big questions using their own interpretations. At Clowne Infant and Nursery school we support children to build an understanding of chronology in each year group, making connections over periods of time and developing a secure knowledge of History. We introduce key substantive concepts including power and achievements of mankind.

Implementation: How will we achieve this?

At Clowne Infant and Nursery School we use Kapow Primary scheme. It emphasises the importance of historical knowledge being shaped by disciplinary approaches. These disciplinary strands are interwoven through all our History units to create engaging and enriching learning experiences which allow the children to investigate history as historians do. Each six-lesson unit has a focus on chronology to allow children to explore the place in time of the period they are studying and make comparisons in other parts of the world. Children will develop their awareness of the past in Key stage 1 and will know where people and events fit chronologically. Units are organised around an enquiry-based question and children are encouraged to follow the enquiry cycle (Question, Investigate, Interpret, Evaluate and conclude, Communicate) when answering historical questions.

Over the course of the scheme, children develop their understanding of the following key disciplinary concepts:

Change and continuity
Cause and consequence
Similarities and differences
Historical significance
Historical interpretations
Sources of evidence

Children will have varied opportunities to learn how historians use these skills to analyse the past and make judgements. They will confidently learn to develop and use their own historical skill set as well as opportunity to revisit and build upon previous skills and knowledge. As children progress through the Kapow scheme, they will create their own historical enquiries to study using sources and the skills they have developed. Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hands-on, allowing all children to experience the different aspects of an historical enquiry including SEN pupils. In each lesson, children will participate in activities involving disciplinary and substantive concepts, developing their knowledge and understanding of Britain’s role in the past and that of the wider world. Kapow lessons can be differentiated to ensure that lessons can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to stretch pupils learning are available when required.

Impact: What difference will this make?

The impact of the teaching and learning is monitored through the year through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes opportunity to assess pupils against the learning objectives through a skill catcher and knowledge assessment quiz. We strive to find out what works well for our children and are open to change when adapting the Kapow scheme to fit our learner’s needs.

We want our pupils to leave our school equipped with a strong foundation of skills to enable them to succeed in their primary education. We want to them to be enquiring learners who are beginning make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past.

EYFS

Year One

Year one started this academic year by focusing on the unit 'How am I making history?' Using a simple timeline, they ordered three photographs, added memories and were encouraged to use the terms ‘before’ and ‘after’. They spoke about their own lives and important events, including birthdays, and finished the term by creating their own time capsule. Term three's unit was called 'How have toys changed?' The children discussed their favourite toy and thought about questions they might ask about toys in the past. Looking at artefacts from different periods of time, the children identified changes between teddy bears today and those from 100 years ago and described how toys have changed over time.

Year Two

Year two began their history learning journey this academic year with the unit 'How was school different in the past?' The children enjoyed using a timeline to order and date photographs of schools from the past and make comparisons between then and now. Children were encouraged to ask questions and become historians to find out more. They used sources to research and develop an understanding of what schools were like 100 years ago. They finished the term by answering the enquiry question - 'would you have preferred to go to school in the past or now?' Term three introduced flight history through the unit 'How did we learn to fly?' After looking at the chronology of important events surrounding the history of flight, the children learned about the Wright Brothers, Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart and the moon landings and why these were significant events in the history of our past.