At St. John Fisher Academy we aim to provide an ambitious history curriculum which encourages all children to develop historical knowledge of the past alongside key historical skills. These knowledge and skills that children can be transferred to other areas of the curriculum and beyond, these are driven by the use of ‘Big Questions’.
All learners in school are immersed in all areas of the National Curriculum, including children with EHCPs. Our history curriculum is progressive and well sequenced from Early Years Foundation Stage to the end of Year 6 and beyond, ensuring that all pupils are ready for the next phase in their education.
All activities set are expected to be completed by children with the same high quality as their RE and English books, by all children including the SEND and disadvantaged children. We expect the very best care and take pride with their presentation in all recorded tasks.
History is an inquisitive subject and as a result we aim to build pupils who strive to learn more about the world around them and its history, including their local area and individual cultures. It’s our hope that we build pupils who continue to be fascinated and passionate about the past and its impact on them so they will use this to think about their place within it.
History at St. John Fisher is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children can achieve a greater breadth in their learning. Teachers have identified the key knowledge (Composites) and the smaller steps needed to take to achieve this (Components), this has been completed with the National Curriculum, knowledge of our children and the local context.
Following Rosenshine’s principles of effective instruction closely, we have broken the key knowledge down into components, in addition, we start every lesson with retrieval practice to allow children the opportunity to retrieve prior knowledge from previous topics and from previous years to ensure disciplinary knowledge has ‘stuck’, this then affects the ongoing assessment using the assessment framework, which enables staff and the subject lead to identify and address gaps in knowledge. It is hoped by following the principles carefully it is more likely that learning will be committed to the long-term memory. If misconceptions become evident, these are corrected as they happen, which then informs future planning. The curriculum is also taught chronologically across the year and across the school, allowing children to build key historical skills. It is expected that all classes have and make use of timelines relevant to their key events, people, places, and dates. This allows pupils to understand the chronology of people and events and then begin to think about relevance, significance and make links between events. This should prepare pupils for now and later in their education to be critical of sources and evaluate them and gain a greater understanding of the past.
We are acutely aware that all children are different and learn in different ways as well as having different starting points, with this in mind we are conscious to ensure that all children, including SEND and disadvantaged receive the full National Curriculum and are exposed to age related content and we don’t narrow or reduce the curriculum in any way for our pupils. Learning is supported by scaffolding where appropriate to ensure that all children know and remember more.
Staff are supported through their delivery and the planning of History by the subject lead and the SENDCo, where required, to ensure that all pupils receive the best possible provision and teaching.
Through planned cultural experiences, teachers are extending children’s experiences and encouraging a deeper understanding and passion for History.
