Intent

At Green Park School, history offers a coherently planned sequence of lessons to help teachers ensure they have progressively covered the skills and concepts required in the National Curriculum. It aims to develop historical skills and concepts which are transferable to whatever period of history is being studied and will equip children for future learning. These key historical skills and concepts, which are revisited throughout different units, are:

• Historical Interpretations;
• Historical Investigations;
• Chronological Understanding;
• Knowledge and Understanding of Events, People and Changes in the Past;
• Presenting, Organising and Communicating.

At Green Park School we aim to give children the opportunity to learn about the history of people and events from different cultures.

Green Park Historians will…

• Have knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.
• Think critically about history.
• Share ideas in a variety of ways.
• Be able to support, evaluate and challenge their own and other’s people’s views using accurate historical evidence from a range of sources.
• Use a range of historical sources to find information.
• Have a curiosity about the past.
• Understand why people interpret the past in different ways.
• Be aware of how the past has shaped their own life and the life of others.
• Understand the legacy of different civilisations on the world today.
• Have respect towards historical evidence and to use it critically, yet sensitively to support their explanations and judgements.
• Have a desire to research things out for themselves across a wide range of historical subjects.
• Enjoy historical stories and link these to real events.
• Be respectful to visitors and primary sources of evidence.

Implementation

At Green Park school we follow Rosenshine’s principles of instruction to teach all children history. This follows 10 principles-

1. New material is broken into small steps, building confidence step by step.
2. Teachers model, thinking aloud showing the children a step by step guide with them practicing partially completed questions.
3. When needed, teachers will provide a scaffold for difficult tasks. This may include checklists, writing frames and anticipating misconceptions and errors.
4. Questioning is a key part to history lessons. Teachers are able to provide opportunities for the children to practice their historical understanding and skills as well as using questioning to determine how well the learning has been learned, informing their decision to move on or provide additional information.
5. Teachers regularly check children’s understanding of history, asking children to explain what they have understood rather than have they understood.
6. Teachers will work with children to guide their practice, asking questions, elaborating on key historical events or skills and checking their understanding.
7. Making sure all children understand what they have been asked to do and that there is a high success rate in understanding the small steps taught is essential before asking children to their independent work. Teachers are encouraged to re-teach if needed before moving onto independent work.
8. Children will move onto independent practice when they have overlearned the small steps taught. Overlearning ensures that the children have fluency when applying their historical knowledge.
9. History lessons also begin with a review of what the children have previously learnt. This is essential before any new learning can be introduced. This may be done in the form of a quiz.
10. Children’s historical learning should be reviewed regularly so that they are well-connected and can retrieve information automatically.

At Green Park School, History is equitable and accessible to all children.

In Foundation we base their historical learning through stories and through their own living history such as things that have happened in their own lifetime. Children share information about their past through play in small world and role-play scenarios as well as during lessons and PSED.

The coverage of recent history in Year 1 and 2 such as ‘Toys’ and ‘music’ enables children to acquire an understanding of time, events and people in their memory and their parents’ and grandparents’ memories. Exploring our own local area as well as significant individuals such as Rosa Parks and Brunel helps to develop an understanding of people in the past.

In KS2 children learn about a range of ancient history through to modern history. This allows for children to develop and embed a sense of time and how civilisations are interconnected. Children start to understand how some historical events occurred concurrently in different locations such as Ancient Egypt and the Stone Age. In Upper Key Stage Two children learn about the legacy of civilisations and how this shaped today’s world.

At Green Park school history lessons are engaging and brought to life through visitors, school trips and artefacts. Teachers share their own interest for history to inspire the children’s own love of the subject and to see how it has shaped the world we live in today. During history week the school works together to show the importance of history to our school and community. We endeavor to show our British values through this subject.

Impact

Outcomes in history books, evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Children review their learning at the end of every session and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with support from their teachers. Children are also encouraged to review learning and demonstrate retrieval through quizzes and weekly/monthly reviews.

Emphasis is placed on analytical thinking and questioning which helps pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and are curious to know more about the past. Through this study, pupils learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Regular school trips or visitors provide further relevant and contextual learning to enrich historical learning.

By the time the children leave our school they should have developed:

• A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
• A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics.