Intent

At Abbey Park First and Nursery School, we provide a topic-based curriculum, which enables pupils to become immersed and make connections across our broadened curriculum. The content coverage gives pupils the opportunity to explore issues at a local, national, and international level from the ancient era through to the twenty first century. Our curriculum equips pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspectives and judgements.

It is intended that History lessons will provide pupils and staff with opportunities to:

• Become increasingly critical and analytical thinkers
• Understand the chronology of Britain’s past and other important periods in History
• Make links and connections within the wider community and locality
• Differentiate between source types and explain how interpretations in History may differ
• Understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change and the diversity of societies

The topics taught have been developed to help children appreciate their own identity, the challenges in their lifetime and those of others in the past. It will help them understand the process of change over time and significant developments.

Implementation

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression. This ensures that skills, knowledge and vocabulary are built on year by year where lessons are sequenced appropriately to support pupil’s learning.

All learning will start by revisiting pupils’ prior knowledge. Teachers model and teach explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills. We encourage regular references to timelines and how topics connect together. With a hands-on approach involving artefacts, school trips and History theme days we are able to bring history alive for our pupils.

Our topic based curriculum allows opportunities for cross curricular links to be made to ensure the children have many occasions where by they can apply their historical knowledge and understanding. By the end of Year 4, pupils will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day.

Our Early Years Department follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which intends for all children, in reception, to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.

Impact

Through History pupils can work will show that a range of topics are being covered, cross-curricular links are made and differentiated work is set appropriately.

The school environment will be history-rich through displays, resources, vocabulary etc.

As a result of a quality, well-constructed History curriculum our pupils will:

• will become increasingly critical and analytical in their thinking. They will learn to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past
• draw on similarities and differences within given time frames and across previously taught History
• gain a coherent knowledge of how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• question and form their own opinions and interpretations of the past
• become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world that they currently live in.