History Curriculum
History at Saughall All Saints CE Primary School
We all love, learn and grow together. Mark 12:31 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'
What is history?
At our school, History is a conversation, in which every child can participate - be it a conversation among a group of children, between a child and a teacher, or even a child reflecting to themselves. It is the curiosity to ask about the past and the skills required to find the answer. Notably, it is also the recognition that, often, the answer doesn’t exist and, instead, a number of varying perspectives and inferences have developed over time, be that due to the contentious nature of the evidence or to the subjective nature of the question. It is both the willingness and aptitude to enquire about the past.
History is not the transmission of information. Of course, the numbers, years and names involved in the Battle of Hastings are of great importance to a historian studying the impact of the Norman Conquest on the course of English history. However, recalling the year ‘1066’ and the name ‘Harold Godwinson’ is not an example of a skilled historian. Rather, a historian will use such information, in context, to develop an understanding of The Four C’s and a P, our five pillars of history - Chronology, Causation, Characteristic Features, Considering Evidence, and Perspective in the context of the enquiry they are making.
History benefits us in far more ways than simply giving us an understanding of history itself. By developing an appreciation that one’s personal circumstances and attitudes can shape an account or interpretation of history, we are able to both grow in resilience, accepting that uncertainty is an inevitable factor in much of what we do, and learn to accept that alternative interpretations are often just as valid as our own and must not be disregarded.
What does history look like at our school?
Each of our history units is driven by an overarching enquiry. In line with our whole-school approach of building our curriculum around a child-centred Learning Challenge, a series of lessons on, for example, Queen Boudicca of the Iceni, may be driven forward by the macro-historical question ‘Why is Boudicca so well-remembered if she didn’t actually stop the Romans?’ Each individual session that makes up that study would, in turn, be driven by a more focussed micro-historical question; these often dig deeper into a specific event, person or place. They will always add to the historian’s understanding of the overarching enquiry and, therefore, their ability to respond to it in an objective and insightful way.
From the youngest to the oldest historians in the school, the explicit skill of enquiry along with other skills that work in tandem with it are developed progressively. This enables our historians to fully access the topics that they are immersed in at their level. For example, while children studying the First Moon Landing in KS1 will be challenged by making simple deductions and cross-referencing, the children in Y6 will be equally challenged by evaluating evidence to detect overt bias and propaganda. This way, a study of the First Moon Landing at Key Stage 1 can still be as well-debated and as historically-rich as a Year 5/6 study of the changing role of women during the Second World War but at a level appropriate to those studying it.
Each unit is designed to be vocabulary rich and to provide relevant and original opportunities for linked work to be undertaken across the curriculum, particularly in literacy. Key vocabulary and definitions of technical words will be detailed on each unit and/or lesson plan in order to ensure that the adult facilitating the lesson is able to well engage and extend children’s vocabulary. Alongside the prominence of vocabulary development, our history studies aim to allow the children to consider the varying perspectives of contemporaries and to immerse them in the time they are studying. This is visible by teachers making effective use of drama, in the form of role play, for example, the use of the Mantle of the Expert1 strategy, improvisation and hot-seating2, for example. Such rich learning experiences almost always lend themselves to meaningful writing opportunities, further strengthening the relationship between history and literacy at our school. These immersive learning opportunities provide the opportunity for the children to further explore the emotions and lives of the people that they are studying, while also bringing the benefit of helping to consolidate their historical understanding in other areas of the curriculum.
Alongside the creative approaches that our teachers employ when developing children’s historical enquiry skills, we are especially lucky that our local area is woven with such a varied and fascinating history. From the village of Saughall itself originating as an Anglo-Saxon settlement, the imposing Roman heritage of the City of Chester, the Iron Age and Bronze Age remains scattered across North Wales, the Tudor Rows and architecture in Chester High Street, and the well of cultural and modern history that is Liverpool, we truly are wonderfully lucky historians. It goes without saying that these local learning opportunities allow us to enrich our history curriculum with a number of purposeful, expert-led school-trips, such as Lower Key Stage 2’s visit to Chester to study Romans in Britain, Upper Key Stage 2’s visit to the Viking/Anglo-Saxon settlement at Martin Mere Wetlands, and Key Stage 1’s visit to Weaver Hall Historical Centre to experience life as a 17th Century Londoner. These memorable and enriching experiences inject lessons with a personality and authenticity then shines through in the related work that follows, thus enriching not just the history curriculum but endlessly contributing to the wider school curriculum as well.
Our history units vary in size to suit the scope and scale of the topic being covered and could last anywhere from two or three discrete sessions up to a whole term. Similarly, the frequency and timing of the individual history sessions themselves may vary, in order to allow opportunities to apply the learning in other areas of the curriculum. Conversely, it is possible that several history sessions will be taught in a single week if it is appropriate. Such occasions might pertain to significant anniversaries or, for example, a notable week of the year, such as Remembrance on Bonfire Night.
What do the children get from studying history?
By studying history at Saughall All Saints, our children develop the skills to solve problems and think critically. They progressively develop the transferrable life skills they will need to both navigate the world of information that modern children and adults are exposed to as well as those that allow them to learn about and learn from the rich histories of the world simply for enjoyment.
Our history curriculum fosters a mentality of self-motivation. Giving children the encouragement and direction to pursue their own interests, they are able to take their understanding of the topics and themes that matter most to them to a deeper level in their own time. In addition to developing key history skills outside of the classroom, this can also help to promote wider reading outside of school as a child’s interests are piqued and they are inspired to find out more about a subject, person or place that that has fascinated them.
This approach is particularly evident in the school-wide use of Learning Logs; a record of open-ended tasks related to the topic that children can add to and present to the class as and when they have engaged in a study of their own. Such a child-centred approach to both content and skills development rewards and embraces curiosity and offers rich opportunities for children to apply their developing skills in a safe yet purposeful way.
How do we assess history?
Assessment of history can sometimes be difficult due to the subject’s open-ended and enquiry-driven nature. With this in mind, alongside our vision of developing independent, curious historians who are able to use evidence to prove, debate and disagree, we consider the aptitude children show for the relevant historical skills that relate to the context they are studying. Assessments of the children are made by making a best-fit judgement to represent their competence in our six key assessment areas. These areas are made up of our five pillars of history, along with Historical Oracy, as detailed in the History Progression of Skills document. Assessment will be made at the end of each unit and submitted by each teacher responsible for teaching the history lessons in the form of a three-way overall assessment. This assessment indicates those who have demonstrated the expected competency, those who are yet to demonstrate it, and those who have demonstrated a deeper understanding than that expected of them. This three-way assessment allows teachers to easily indicate those who are working at levels significantly lower or higher than the majority of the class. It is unlikely that a single unit of work will cover all history skills for a year group; full coverage will be achieved across the complete two-year curriculum.
¹Mantle of the Expert: An education approach that uses imaginary contexts to generate purposeful and engaging activities for learning. Within the fiction the students are cast as a team of experts working for a client (usually the teacher) on a commission.
2hot-seating: A child or adult, who is in-role as a character or figure they have become familiar with, is questioned by the group about his or her background, behaviour and motivation.