History
Subject Lead – Mrs A Chisman
At St Joseph’s, we believe a high-quality History education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time
The aims of the Curriculum for History are to:
- know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological
narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped
this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world - know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of
ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features
of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind - gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as
‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ - understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and
consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make
connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and - create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously - to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and
interpretations of the past have been constructed.
The subject content for History is:
Key Stage One:
- changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal
aspects of change in national life - events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally [for example, the
Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through
festivals or anniversaries] - the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and
international achievements. Some should be used to compare aspects of life in
different periods [for example, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Christopher Columbus
and Neil Armstrong, William Caxton and Tim Berners-Lee, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and
LS Lowry, Rosa Parks and Emily Davison, Mary Seacole and/or Florence Nightingale
and Edith Cavell] - significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
Key Stage Two:
- changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
- the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
- Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
- the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward
the Confessor - a local history study
- a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological
knowledge beyond 1066 - the achievements of the earliest civilizations – an overview of where and when the first
civilizations appeared and a depth study of one of the following: Ancient Sumer; The
Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China - Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the
western world - a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history – one study chosen
from: early Islamic civilization, including a study of Baghdad c. AD 900; Mayan
civilization c. AD 900; Benin (West Africa) c. AD 900-1300.
Our history curriculum draws upon several powerful sources of knowledge – this is our view on history:
Substantive knowledge– this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used about the past. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content. Misconceptions are challenged carefully and in the context of the substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
Disciplinary knowledge– this is the use of that knowledge and how children construct understanding through historical claims, arguments and accounts. We call it ‘Working Historically.’ The features of thinking historically may involve significance, evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective, and contextual interpretation.
Historical analysis is developed through selecting, organising and integrating knowledge through reasoning and inference making in response to our structured questions and challenges. We call this ‘Thinking historically’
Substantive concepts, such as tax, invasion and civilisation are taught through explicit vocabulary instruction as well as through the direct content and context of the study.
Our history curriculum draws upon prior learning, wherever the content is taught. For example, in the EYFS, pupils may learn about the past and present through daily activities, exploring through change, and understanding more about the lives of others through books and visitors as well as their own experiences. These experiences are drawn upon and used to position new learning in KS1.
The structure is built around the principles of advancing cumulative knowledge, chronology, change through cause and effect, as well as making connections within and throughout periods of time studied.
In order to achieve the above, we follow a specific Curriculum for History. Therefore our curriculum is organised into blacks with each block covering a particular set of historic disciplines. Each block draws upon prior learning, wherever the content is taught. The structure is built around the principles of advancing cumulative knowledge, chronology, change through cause and consequence, as well as making connections within and throughout periods of time studied.
History is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge.’ The subject is taught in a strategic way which deliberately incorporates a range of modules that revisit, elaborate and sophisticate key concepts, events, people and places.
In addition, a guiding principle is that pupils become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and mental timeline. Specific and historical vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Year 1 to Year 6. High frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught alongside, and help to make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3). Each learning module in history has a vocabulary module which aims to further broaden our pupils’ extensive vocabulary.
Click below to view our History Long Term Overview:
