History at St John’s

“There is no agreed single canon of historical content. History should allow pupils to encounter very different societies from their own, and to weigh different interpretations. They should study important themes from British history but also from European, American and non-Western history. The subject should be relevant: more distant history, such as the Crusades or the Reformation can often be just as illuminating as more recent topics. Above all, history should encourage openness of mind, respect for other views, and the ability to distinguish a valid and a shoddy line of argument.”

Sean Lang, Historical Association

INTENT

Self – We want our pupils to have an understanding of how history has impacted upon their current lives by comparing different historical periods
Others – We want our pupils to learn about different cultures and religions within different historical periods so that they understand and appreciate cultural diversity beyond their own community
Wider world – We want our children to have skills and knowledge to adapt to the ever-changing world considering historical events and their impact

IMPLEMENTATION

History teaching focuses on enabling pupils to think as historians. We place an emphasis on examining historical evidence from primary and secondary sources. We welcome visitors to come into the school and talk about their experiences of events in the past and organise themed enrichment days to immerse the children into a particular topic. We organise visits to sites of historical interest to further deepen our pupils’ understanding of the topic. We recognize and value the importance of stories in history teaching and we regard this as an important way of stimulating interest in the past. We focus on helping pupils understand that historical events can be interpreted in different ways and that they should always ask searching questions, such as ‘how do we know?’, about information they are given.

We recognise the fact that in all classes there are pupils of widely-different abilities in history and we seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this by:

setting common tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses;
setting tasks of increasing difficulty or complexity to match ability. Not all pupils complete all tasks

In order for children to know more and remember more in each area of history studied, the lesson sequence is structured so that prior learning is always considered and opportunities for revision and retrieval of key dates, events and facts are built into lessons. We have added ‘Flashback’ questions at the start of lessons that often revisit the key substantive knowledge from previous lessons and topics. Retrieval quizzes also provide great opportunities to help make the key knowledge stick. This all allows for revision to become part of good practice and ultimately helps build a depth to children’s historical understanding. Revision and introduction of key vocabulary is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in topic starter pages, display materials and additional resources to ensure that children are allowed opportunities to repeat and revise this knowledge.

In all lessons, we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of history and see how it has shaped the world they live in. It is important for children to understand that the past influences the present and the future. We want to encourage children to learn that they can’t change history but what they can do is learn about it and learn from it then use this information to help shape a better future.

HISTORY CURRICULUM PLANNING

We use the objectives set out in the National Curriculum as the basis for our planning in history, but we have adapted this to the local context. We ensure that there are opportunities for pupils of all abilities to develop their skills and knowledge in each unit and we build planned progression into the scheme of work so that the pupils are increasingly challenged as they move up through the school (see progression of substantive and disciplinary knowledge below).

The long-term plan maps out the topics to be covered over the 4 year cycle (KS2) or 3 year cycle (EYFS/KS1).

The history schemes of work are written by the history subject leader. In each topic substantive knowledge and concepts, disciplinary knowledge and historical enquiry are developed simultaneously:

1) Substantive knowledge - knowledge that children should take away from a topic after it has been taught. It consists of the core facts and historical knowledge of the period, such as historical narrative, significant events or people, period features, chronology and substantive concepts.

2) Substantive concepts - We have identified a set of key historical concepts that children will repeatedly revisit throughout their time at St John’s. These concepts are: ‘Political and Military’, ‘Social and Cultural’, ‘Economic’ and ‘Legacy’. Each unit will not include every concept, but over a year, children will visit each one more than once. They are words that are hard to define in one definition as they mean slightly different things in different contexts and periods of time. As a child progresses through their education, they will learn a little more about the concept each time they come across it, slowly building a coherent understanding of the concept throughout history. It is not expected that by the end of primary school, children will have a full understanding of these substantive concepts but they will be able to draw from their learning in history to better explain what they mean.

3) Disciplinary knowledge - Disciplinary knowledge includes all the historical skills that children will need to develop over time in their history lessons. They are skills that enable us to critically analyse contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past and make our own reasoned judgements about the past.

History Substantive Knowledge Concepts

Assessment is built into our programmes of work. Children’s work is recorded in History books and the red home-school books sometimes with evaluations from the pupils. Flashback retrieval questions at the start of lessons and end of unit quizzes are used to assess children’s recall of historical knowledge.

History in EYFS

Reception pupils learn about History through playful, practical and focused tasks. Their curriculum is guided by the “Understanding of the World” statements found in the Development Matters document for September 2021 that school has chosen to adopt early in September 2020. Reception children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals in Summer with History assessed under the new Early Learning Goal titled “Past and Present.”