History – Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Bow Brickhill C of E Primary School, we encourage our pupils to develop their skills as historians by being curious about their own heritage (personal and local history) as well as the wider world. We strive to develop their understanding of chronology, by ensuring that they question and weigh up evidence, considering where the information has come from and keeping possible biases in mind. It is vital that pupils are able to make connections in history and understand how events or significant people from the past have shaped our lives today. We feel it is important that pupils are taught about events from the past from different perspectives as we strive for our pupils to have a broad and balanced view of historical events and people, increasing their ‘cultural capital’. This includes learning about racism, slavery, capital punishment, war or other significant historical events that have shaped us as a society and as a nation in the wider world. 

At Bow Brickhill C of E Primary School we have designed our History curriculum with the intent that our children will:

Implementation

The history curriculum follows the National Curriculum and is overseen by the history lead. At Bow Brickhill C of E Primary School, teachers in Key Stage One teach the history skills with a blended learning approach. English skills and history skills are taught side by side and taught through class texts and historical themes such as: changes within living memory, events beyond living memory and significant individuals such as Neil Armstrong and Florence Nightingale.

In KS2 history is also taught alongside literacy lessons. Teachers are enthusiastic and passionate about history, ensuring that children also develop an interest and are fully engaged in lessons. Teachers also have high expectations of children’s progress, striving for them to achieve highly and to the best of their capabilities.

We have decided that the best approach for our pupils, is to teach historical skills that build and develop pupils understanding of British history and history of the wider world.

These skills develop and build on children’s understanding of:

Many of the skills that make a knowledgeable and confident historian are also crucial in English. With this in mind, teachers carefully select whole class texts that bridge English and the topics covered in History. They also ensure that texts are rich and engaging. When pupils demonstrate their understanding of historical skills, teachers expect pupils to write at age related standards, including the grammatical skills taught within each year group. They also expect children to take care with spelling, ensuring that keywords and vocabulary are spelt correctly and used within the correct context.

Working walls are regularly updated by teachers and demonstrate the learning journey within history. Children are encouraged to discuss what they have learnt and build on previous knowledge.

Impact

Our approach to history at Bow Brickhill C of E Primary School results in a fun, engaging and meaningful curriculum, which stays with pupils into their future education and later in life. Pupils develop a confident understanding of their local history and learn more about their heritage, asking questions and discussing what they have learnt with multiple generations of their family. Pupils also understand the impact that past events and people have had in shaping the wider world that they live in.

Children demonstrate that they are experts in research and taking their own learning and interests further by asking questions and making enquiries and inferences based on their knowledge of the past.

Through trips, workshops and talking to experts, pupils understand the impact historical events or people have had in shaping their lives and the lives of their families or certain areas of Britain. They are able to think critically and evaluate the reliability of sources.

Children demonstrate their understanding and progression of skills at the end of a topic by answering questions about what they have learnt. This may be in the form of a quiz or in an essay style question.


Progression maps are available on request from the School Office.