Intent

Our history curriculum intends to inspire pupils’ curiosity and fascination about Britain’s past and that of the wider world.  Pupils will learn about:

• the chronology of the British Isles
• significant aspects of the history of the wider world like ancient civilisations and empires
• the changes in living memory and beyond living memory
• the lives of significant people of the past
• similarities and differences between different time frames and across previously taught history

Children will use and understand a variety of methods for historical enquiry and to be able to ask and answer questions.  We want children to enjoy and love learning about history by gaining knowledge and skills, not just through experiences in the classroom, but also through educational visits and visitors.

Implementation

At Coulsdon C of E Primary School, we use Cornerstones Maestro to support our delivery of the History National Curriculum. This is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage and progression of national expectations. It is  based on a child-centred pedagogy called The Four Cornerstones (engage - develop - innovate - express) and is delivered through themed topics which provide a wide range of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of children’s learning. The teachers use creative and cross-curricular approaches as well as teaching the subjects independently.

Each topic follows the format of:

• Engage – the children take part in a memorable experience, start to read and research the new topic and ask their own enquiry questions.
• Develop – the children delve more deeply into a topic, develop an understanding of new concepts and skills, acquire new knowledge, practice and master new skills and re-visit previously learned skills.
• Innovate – the children apply skills, knowledge and understanding to real-life and imaginary contexts, show enterprise in solving problems and resolving situations, use their thinking skills to explore possibilities and build on their self-esteem and confidence.
• Express – the children perform, present and become the experts, evaluate finished products, processes and progress and link what they have learnt to starting points or initial observations.

By teaching History through a range of exciting and explorative ways, we foster genuine interest in the past. Using a wide range of resources, artefacts, experiences and visits allows us to enhance learning and children tell us how much they enjoy History topics! Pupils are able to gather information from a variety of sources, understand how aspects of history have impacted the present day and make connections and draw conclusions between historical events. Pupils are given the opportunity to place events, people and changes into chronological order and consider how these changes have affected the world.

Impact
Teachers will use knowledge organisers and mindmaps completed by children at the beginning of each topic to assess what the children already know and revisit the mindmaps at the end of each topic for children to add to, showing progression throughout the topic.  Ongoing assessments will take place throughout the sequence of learning with teachers making observations of pupils during lessons, through marking, questioning and discussion with pupils.

Early Years

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old. The EYFS framework supports an integrated approach to early learning. Within the “Understanding the World” strand of the EYFS Framework there is an Early Learning Goal (ELG) entitled ‘Past and Present’, which is where history fits into the EYFS curriculum. It is closely aligned with the requirements of the history National Curriculum and sets a good foundation for the children as they move through the school. As with the older years, we use Cornerstones Maestro to help deliver our history curriculum in the Reception Class