History at Wivelsfield Primary School
Intent
Our History curriculum aims to inspire pupils to become curious and reflective thinkers with a secure understanding of Britain’s past and the wider world. We equip children with a coherent knowledge of significant events, people and societies, enabling them to make connections across time.
Through enquiry-led learning, pupils are taught to think like historians: to ask perceptive questions, investigate evidence, consider different perspectives and develop informed interpretations.
By exploring the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change over time and the diversity of societies, pupils develop a strong sense of identity and a deeper understanding of the world around them. Ultimately, we aim to nurture informed, thoughtful citizens who can use their historical understanding to make sense of the present and contribute positively to the future.
Implementation
We have designed our curriculum based on Kapow History's Scheme of work. Our curriculum and lesson design reflects our children's interests and needs as well as our local area's history and context. We have one History topic every full term and alternate this half termly topic with Geography.
Spiral Curriculum Structure
We follow Kapow Primary’s History scheme which incorporates a spiral curriculum model, ensuring that pupils revisit and develop their understanding of key themes and concepts as they progress. This approach allows them to make meaningful connections, reinforce their learning and achieve mastery over time.
Historical enquiry equips pupils with the skills to investigate the past using evidence. It supports them to ask meaningful questions, evaluate sources, weigh arguments and understand how different interpretations of history are constructed. Pupils examine a wide range of evidence (e.g. artefacts, photographs, documents, census records, oral histories and archaeological sources) to answer historical questions.
For example:
Each lesson begins with a short activity that revisits prior learning. This helps reinforce key knowledge, activate long-term memory and create connections between past and new learning. These activities are varied to keep the start of the lesson engaging while still supporting active recall.
A short, engaging activity designed to hook pupils into the new learning in the lesson. This could be a thought-provoking question, a quick investigation or an interactive discussion to spark curiosity and enthusiasm for the topic.
Main activity
The core part of the lesson, where pupils engage in activities that develop their understanding of the learning objective. This includes a mixture of teacher modelling, guided practice and independent or collaborative tasks tailored to support all learners. The children will complete a range of engaging, age appropriate tasks that encourage deeper thinking and link to other areas of the curriculum where possible.
Wrapping up
A final reflective activity that consolidates learning.
Adaptive teaching:
By embedding adaptive teaching throughout, we ensure that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, can access and succeed in their learning.
We include a range of strategies to support and challenge every pupil including:
Scaffolding – activities are designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for additional support or challenge where needed.
Multi-sensory approaches – lessons incorporate different elements to engage all learners.
Clear instructions and structured tasks – ensuring clarity and reducing cognitive load for pupils who benefit from additional support.
Opportunities for collaborative and independent learning – allowing pupils to work at their own pace while building confidence and independence.
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. 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
As a result of our enquiry-led and adaptive History curriculum, pupils develop a secure and coherent understanding of Britain’s past and the wider world. Children revisit and deepen key concepts over time, enabling them to retain knowledge, make meaningful connections and achieve increasing mastery as they progress from EYFS to Year 6.
Pupils become confident historians who can ask thoughtful questions, analyse a range of sources, weigh evidence and understand that history is open to interpretation. They demonstrate growing independence in planning and carrying out historical enquiries, applying critical thinking skills with increasing sophistication by the end of KS2.
Regardless of starting points, pupils show resilience, curiosity and confidence when engaging with complex ideas about change, cause, significance and perspective.
Through meaningful links to our local context and educational visits, children develop a strong sense of place and identity. They understand how history shapes their community and the wider world, leaving primary school as informed, reflective and engaged citizens ready for the next stage of their education.