History
Intent
At Roundhay St. John’s Primary School it is our aim to instil a love of History in all of our children. We provide an interesting and varied curriculum that continuously builds on pupils’ previous learning as they move through school. Our curriculum aims to be as diverse as the children in our school and one which inspires and enthuses all of them. We encourage our pupils to think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, develop perspective and make evidence based judgements. Before leaving us, children will gain a secure chronological knowledge and understanding of British and world history making connections and recognising contrasts over time. They will learn to devise questions relating to changes, similarities, differences as well as cause and effect and learn to be able to select from a variety of sources to help support their hypothesis.
Implementation
In History, children focus on a wide range of historical periods both within Britain and throughout the world. These periods have been chosen carefully to allow children to both build their chronological knowledge as well as enable them to make connections within and across different historical times. With the help and support of the history experts at The Discovery Centre in Leeds, we have created progression grids that sit alongside our curriculum map to ensure there is clear skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression throughout school and we use these to inform future planning. We use an inquiry approach which teaches our children strategies to question, discuss, research and explain events that have happened. Children are encouraged to ask historical questions which leads to analysing various sources to establish historical evidence. The historical evidence is then used to construct historical interpretations that seek to answer the original questions. Through our links with Leeds Discovery Centre, we use historical artefacts, to enhance the children’s experience and through visits and visitors we aim to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past. During teaching, links are regularly made between previous and current learning to clearly demonstrate similarity, difference, contrast and trends. Links will be made to other subjects in the curriculum including maths, English and art which will give the children a well-rounded and engaging experience.
Impact
The impact of our curriculum will lead to the children making excellent progress while they are at Roundhay St. John’s and instilling in them an enthusiasm for history as they continue their learning journey. On leaving us, the children will be well equipped with the skills, knowledge and understanding to allow them to flourish and will put them in a strong position to manage the challenges and complexities of this subject as they move to the next stage of their schooling.
