History

Intent

The intent of the History curriculum at Whitmore Park Primary School is to provide a rich and engaging historical education that inspires pupils’ curiosity about the past, develops their understanding of chronology, and helps them to make connections between historical events, people, and periods. Our intent is to foster a love for learning history, promote cultural understanding, and instill a sense of local and global citizenship among our pupils. We aim to ensure that our pupils acquire a solid foundation of historical knowledge and key historical skills that will equip them for future learning and enable them to become informed and critical thinkers about the past.  We follow the ‘Understanding the World’ framework for the EYFS and the National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2. We ensure that the curriculum provides opportunities for our children to learn about the history and heritage of Coventry which helps them to develop a sense of their culturally diverse community. 

Implementation

Our History curriculum is implemented through a carefully planned sequence of lessons that are interlinked and build upon each other to form a coherent and progressive journey through time. We utilise a variety of teaching approaches, including stimulating first-hand experiences such as visits to local historical sites, handling primary sources, and engaging with historical artefacts.  

History is taught through direct, explicit instruction of new vocabulary, active learning for pupils to acquire knowledge, teachers model how to use historical skills and providing opportunities for children to record and retrieve their learning. Guided and independent retrieval practice as described by Rosenshine and rooted in cognitive science are used, where appropriate, to ensure that children remember the key knowledge.  Children are supported to use the knowledge to make links and develop concepts, and in activities that require deeper thinking. 

Our History Curriculum will enable pupils to:  

    • Develop a sense of time (chronology), recognising how time is measured and that some things change and some things stay the same. 
    • Investigate how and why events happen and how they may be linked.  
    • Consider what it was like to live in different periods and what motivated the people who lived then – and that we cannot think in the way they thought.
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    • Recognise that there are some things we can never know about the past and that history has to be constructed from the bits of the past that have survived.
    •  Understand that people interpret the past differently and use different ways to present their ideas. 
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    • Make thoughtful use of a variety of sources to find out about the past. 
    • Communicate their ideas in a variety of ways and with clarity and independence. 
    • Develop cultural capital through the significant people they learn about and the visits they experience. 

Impact

The impact of our History curriculum is evident in the outcomes achieved by our pupils. Through our curriculum, pupils develop a deep understanding of historical concepts, events, and themes. They demonstrate a keen awareness of the significance of the past in shaping the present and the future. Pupils engage confidently with historical sources, evaluate evidence, and construct well-reasoned arguments based on their historical knowledge. They show respect for diversity and an appreciation of different cultural perspectives. Our pupils exhibit strong historical literacy skills, including the ability to analyse, interpret, and communicate historical information effectively. As a result of our history curriculum, pupils leave our primary school as competent historians, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed academically and thrive as active and engaged citizens in an ever-changing world. 

To monitor the impact of our history curriculum, in lessons teachers use formative assessment to support and promote deep learning of knowledge, skills and development of concepts. We start each lesson with a link to prior learning and review the Knowledge Organisers. Activities such as quizzes, multiple choice questions, quiz, quiz trade and our ‘Daily Dashboard’ are used to support children knowing and remembering more. Teachers use questioning and ‘live marking’ during lessons to check the children’s understanding whilst they are learning and address any misconceptions. They review their learning at the end of the lesson by returning to the Knowledge Organisers and the children’s books. The history subject leaders monitors and evaluates the pupils outcomes through looking at children’s books, pupil voice and dropping into lessons. 

Please click here to see the skills and knowledge progression for History.

Please click here to see the links between History, Geography and Science.