History at Ferham Primary School 

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At Ferham Primary School we are committed to embedding a comprehensive, knowledge-rich History curriculum throughout the school. We teach children a sense of chronology and, through this, develop a sense of identity and an awareness of the challenges of their time. History lessons in our school will fire a child’s curiosity about how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people’s actions. 

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Curriculum Intent

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Our History curriculum follows the Ark Curriculum + curriculum and has several aims:  

• make History learning a meaningful, interactive and engaging journey 

• develop pupils’ interest in the past and an appreciation of human achievements and aspirations 

• help students become empowered to be active global citizens: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international History; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social History 

• develop pupils’ thinking and discussion skills, while considering how the past influences the present 

• ensure a clear progression of knowledge, skills and understanding through a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people 

• create opportunities to engage with local history to celebrate the heritage of our children so that they can understand themselves and others. 

 

Curriculum Implementation

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Foundation Stage 

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History is taught in EYFS as part of the Understanding the World strand of the Development Matters Framework . One day a week is focused on this strand with a lesson taught on the carpet and learning then further developed through a variety of activities in Continuous Provision throughout the week. Teaching will provide children with the opportunity to understand the past through books, looking at people and places. Children will be given the opportunity to compare the past and present and look for similarities between the past and their lives now to ensure children reach the specific milestone set out in our EYFS Curriculum Progression Grids. 

 

Key Stage 1 and 2 

Pupils are introduced to their next History topic using activities from Discovery Boxes over half term. This provides pupils with some prior knowledge, allows parents and carers to engage with learning and generates enthusiasm for the learning ahead.  

Prior to the start of a unit, all staff make use of the Unit Planning Guidance provided to ensure that their subject knowledge is secure. In addition, each unit has its own Knowledge Organiser, planning, pupil booklets and adaptable lessons slides. This means our teachers can spend their (reduced) planning time adapting learning to meet the needs of their class.  The adaptable slides also allow us to build in our explicit vocabulary instruction at the start of every lesson. We support SEND and EAL pupils by amending the pupil booklets and resources to focus one key piece of “sticky knowledge” allowing all learners to be successful. 

 

 

 

 

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Each KS1 & 2 classroom supports pupils’ learning in History by featuring a consistent working wall (see above) which has several important features: 

• a timeline to support chronological understanding 

• significant people who are deliberately representative 

• vocabulary and definitions which are built up over time  

• facts for later to support the retention of new learning before it is applied in the doble page spread at the end of each unit 

• an interactive display including quality books (fiction, non-fiction and poetry), aerial photographs and artefacts 

 

 

In all lessons, speaking and listening skills are integral in order to deepen thinking and promote understanding around the key concepts and timeline events. The core knowledge and vocabulary are the entry point and our aim is to connect this knowledge, for example, so that pupils recognise that events were taking place across the world at the same time.  

Historical knowledge is further developed through cross-curricular links. For example, whole class reading and class novels in KS1 and 2 are sometimes  linked to topics to provide hinterland knowledge. DT is used to support learning by giving children opportunities to create and taste food related to their History topic allowing them to understand where food comes from which, alongside drama and educational visits, gives our children an immersive experience so that new skills and techniques can be learned and perfected. 

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Curriculum Impact 

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Monitoring of History will be managed by the subject leader and take several forms: pupil interviews, planning scrutinies,  outcome scrutinies, lesson observations and learning walks will all be used alongside summative substantive knowledge assessments. 

We ascertain impact using assessment in three forms: assessment for learning; assessment as learning; and assessment of learning.  

In History, assessment for learning is continuous as teachers adapt their teaching according to learners’ needs. This may include remodelling, additional scaffolding such as word mats or written steps to follow or extra challenge such as independent research. 

In History, assessment as learning is the start of every lesson. Pupils complete a retrieval exercise to recall and embed important learning into their long-term memories. Retrieval occurs again at the end of History lessons as pupil consider their learning and select appropriate knowledge to answer the driving question and note this on the working wall for future reference.  

In History, assessment of learning takes two forms at Ferham and both are focused on our curriculum rather than age related expectations: pupils complete an end-of-unit substantive knowledge quiz to enable teachers and the subject leader to check that “sticky knowledge” is embedded; pupils also complete a double page spread to answer the driving question of each unit by applying their knowledge. Where “sticky knowledge” is not yet embedded, it is revised and revisited 

There is no published data for History at primary school; the varied monitoring strategies above ensure we have an accurate view of curriculum and learning and pupil attainment of our curriculum.  This is reported to parents within the end of year report. 

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Curriculum Overview