History

Intent

At Wivelsfield, through enriched learning opportunities, all children will be equipped with the knowledge and understanding of their place in history and how events in the past have impacted the present day. They develop an understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in History, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on the key knowledge and skills and concepts stated in the National Curriculum. Through an enquiry-based curriculum, we develop a deeper understanding of those key historical concepts by honing our learning into one aspect of a wider ‘topic’ to ensure depth of learning.

Reading will thread into the teaching of History: with every new Topic having a range of key vocabulary that builds from their previous learning, to reading difference sources and conducting research, the children will be exposed to different reading opportunities wherever possible.

The History curriculum at Wivelsfield Primary School is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills that are taught in each Key Stage. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of skills document. Teachers can use this document to plan their history lessons suitable to their class’s interests and what they want to learn. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the key concepts, skills and knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.

When teaching history, the teachers should follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. History teaching focuses on enabling children to think critically. A variety of teaching approaches are used to achieve this; from investigations to practical activities- the children are given wide opportunities to show their learning in a variety of ways.

History provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of more able pupils through the investigations, analysing sources and writing extending pieces. Children showing extensive aptitude in History will be given opportunities to showcase their learning by completing tasks and challenges that don’t restrict their output.

Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional History learning outside the classroom. At Wivelsfield Primary School, the children have had many opportunities to experience History on educational visits. The children have explored the history of Wivelsfield Village and the local area. In addition to this, we have lots of fantastic Historical sites on our doorstep, with visits to Newhaven Fort, The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Toy Museum to name a few of the exciting opportunities children have to explore and enhance their history skills.

Impact

Through well-planned and progressive teaching of the key historical skills, concepets and knowledge, children will leave Wivelsfield Primary School with a clear understanding of where they sit in history and the incredible events that have shaped the world we live in today. They will be explorative, posing historical questions that are of interest to them. They will have advanced historical skills that they can apply to real-world scenarios. Children leaving Wivelsfield Primary School will be Historians.

History whole school subject overview

History skills progression with key concepts