Intent:

At Pyrcroft Grange Primary School, we believe that high-quality history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians.

By linking learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, and to be able to communicate historically.

We develop children with the following essential characteristics to help them become historians:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past;
• Learning about the concept of chronology, which underpins children's developing sense of period, as well as key concepts such as change and causation.
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences;
• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources;
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry;
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their learning;
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics;
• A developing sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.

Implementation:

Teachers are supported to plan an inspiring curriculum which asks ‘big questions’ to motivate our pupils into becoming enthusiastic historians. As part of the planning process teachers will plan for

• A knowledge organiser which outlines knowledge (including vocabulary) all children must master;
• A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth building on the knowledge and skills that have previously been acquired.
• Cross curricular links with other subjects in particular using History as a focus for extended writing opportunities.
• High expectations for all pupils with Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a philosophical/open manner;
• Trips and visiting experts who will enhance the learning experience;

Impact:

Our History Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.

We ensure that -

• Children from all backgrounds will have an understanding of their history and of their place in Britain and the wider world
• Children understand how historical concepts have driven the development of all civilizations 
• Children will become increasingly critical and analytical within their thinking. Making informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past.  
• Children will become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world that they currently live in.  
• They will also have a further understanding of History on a local level and on a small-scale.   
• Children will develop enquiry skills to pursue their own interests within a topic and further questioning.  
• Where applicable, children will have encountered or participated in high-quality visits/visitors to further appreciate the impact of History.  
• Children are to retain prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning.   
• Children are able to place periods of civilization in chronological order and make inferences on those civilizations based on the time period that they existed 

If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes
• Use of the knowledge organiser as a form of assessment, tool to activate prior learning
• An end point assessment opportunity for each area of learning per year group which demonstrates progression of knowledge and skills learned.
• Pupil discussions about their learning, displaying an understanding of key knowledge and interconnected links.
• Teachers base their judgement of the pupil’s knowledge, learning and understanding to record their outcomes on a windscreen.