History at Harlyn
Intent
At Harlyn, History is an enquiry-based subject. We aim to teach a broad and balanced curriculum that will ignite the children’s curiosity about the past in Great Britain and the wider world, in order to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding. We strive to encourage pupils to develop an understanding of the past through evaluating a range of primary and secondary resources. The children will also be able to explain clearly how these sources give us an insight about how people around the world used to live and how these interpretations may differ. Children will be taught to make links between these areas of learning with the aim of developing engaged and curious learners that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links to the present day.
Our History curriculum is designed to cover skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.
Implementation
We alternate our Geography and History topics ensuring that our children receive a well-rounded teaching of the humanities subjects throughout the year. At times, we take the opportunity to create links between the two subjects to help solidify the learning taking place.
All learning will start by revisiting prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
History at Harlyn focuses on establishing children to think as historians. History is taught through a cross-curricular approach which aims to give children valuable experiences both in and out of the classroom.
There is a clear progression of skills and knowledge taught through both classwork and fieldwork. We recognise the value and importance of stories in history teaching and we regard this as an important way of stimulating interest in the past. Historical skills are built upon year to year, these include:
As the children advance through history, they will build on their ability to ask questions, think critically and develop different perspectives and judgements.
Impact
The impact of History teaching is monitored in a number of ways. The aim is to ensure that children are equipped with historical knowledge and skills that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and the wider world. Outcomes in topic and literacy books, evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Children review their knowledge at the end of each unit and actively reflect upon and answer their enquiry-based question using subject-specific vocabulary. Our children will think critically, evaluate evidence and develop their own perspectives and judgement.
We expect the impact of our teaching to be that children meet age related expectations. These can be seen in the progression document below.