History
What is the vision of History at Lee Chapel?
At Lee Chapel, our History curriculum is broad, balanced and rich; designed to ensure the progressive
development and refinement of skills of historical enquiry which children will take forward with them
to secondary school and beyond. The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:
- know and understand how Britain’s past has shaped this nation and how Britain been influenced by the wider world
- know and understand significant aspects of the History of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
Intent
At Lee Chapel, we aim to deliver a broad and high-quality history curriculum which inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our ambition is that all children will be taught, and encouraged to use, the skills of thinking critically, weighing evidence, sifting through arguments, asking perceptive questions and developing perspective and judgement in order to put historical events into context. Through our teaching of history, we develop these skills with the aim of them being transferable and complementary to other areas of the curriculum.
We supply children with a sense of chronology so that they can better understand when historical events happened around the world and how these events have influenced life today. We hope children can appreciate and understand their place in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better equipped to make their own life choices today.
Implementation
History is taught as part of a termly topic focusing on, but not limited to, the development of the knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum. Lessons are planned in year groups to ensure consistency between classes and are differentiated to enable all pupils to engage with the subject at their own level. Lessons are designed to be fun, engaging and captivating, accessing varied technology, including Augmented Reality (AR), and making use of a range of different methods of recording learning in books. History expectations:
- Taught an hour per week
- Pupils will conduct one ‘deep dive’ per term, focusing on a key area of their topic in greater depth over a period of three related but contrasting lessons.
- Termly history off the page days’ or educational visits.
- Whole school History Week where every year group focus on decade from the past – examining an historical event, music, art, film and an icon from the past. Or a particular era in time is focussed on as a whole school – examining a historical person or event, with cross-curricular links in English - planning and writing for the week.
- Develops the 4 key areas of history: historical knowledge, historical enquiry, chronology & interpretation.
Impact
Children at Lee Chapel are equipped with historical skills and knowledge that are transferable and will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world. Emphasis is placed on children gaining coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Children learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about history, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.
EYFS
Early years explore historical themes and content through the Understanding of the World strand of the EYFS curriculum. This involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places and time.
History Subject Leader
