History

HISTORY LEADER

  Mr Taylor

'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'

HISTORY INTENT FOR OUR PROGRAMME OF STUDY: KNOWLEDGE, PROGRESSION, COVERAGE

(PRIOR, NOW, NEXT)

Our core school intent runs through every aspect of our teaching and learning. It is our philosophy and approach in every subject area. It is how we teach and learn. Every leader commits to this. But every subject must have its own Programme of Study - its own lines of progression for the knowledge and skills we plan to teach and therefore its own rationale/intent for what we teach and learn. This is the rationale for this ‘prior, now and next’ in history.

Using the National Curriculum, we have designed a study programme with three constant areas of study which build progressively and logically over seven years:

CHRONOLOGY STUDY (TERMED ASPECT/WIDER STUDY IN KS1);

CIVILISATION STUDY;

LOCAL STUDY.

Each of which are designed to build upon and consolidate knowledge and harness skills along the way. They start specific and then widen as our children’s experience and understanding grows. 

CHRONOLOGY STUDY starts with a focus upon establishing past and present and how 'things' common to the children's lives and experiences change over time during the Early Years through our 'I Wonder...' statements. As the National Curriculum suggests, we then move into a tighter focus of an aspect, place or people in our chronology work in KS1 - each of which hint at the periods of history to follow in KS2. Then we move into a full chronological story from the end of the Iron Age through to Britain post WW2. Each flowing, building, comparing and contrasting as they weave across the remaining years.

CIVILISATION STUDY means we have placed two contrasting ancient European and non-European civilisation studies alongside each other in Year 4&5 to offer that immediate comparison and we hint further towards this in our carefully placed Amazon/Mayan studies in Year 5.

LOCAL STUDY is a constant feature across seven years. Designed to build out from personal, immediate experiences in Early Years, into St Annes, The Fylde Coast, Blackpool and West Lancashire (across the subsequent six years) and each time gradually building in the importance of tourism and the coastline to its rise and growth alongside the theme of social change and war from the Victorian period onwards in Upper Key Stage 2. Our curriculum evaluation spoke loudly about the need for our children to understand their home region. The National Curriculum does the same. Therefore we have constructed LOCAL STUDY as an ever-present thread for this.  

Take a look at the Coverage Overview below and our Programme of Study: Progression & Milestones document. Download them at the base of the page and then take a look at the 'Implement & Impact' section of the website to see how we bring this to life with the help of our ‘how’ Classroom Craft philosophy.

HISTORY IMPLEMENTATION & MONITORING: SO MY CURRENT WORK IS.....

* ensuring our study of history is building chronologically as an essential part of progression. Threads in EYFS/KS1 and broad time/period studies in KS2.

* ensuring we meet our intention of embedding and building our unique local history within every year of the curriculum;

* ensuring we can compare and contrast ancient civilisations through our well placed and planned studies;

* we must ensure that our elicitation work or 'diagnostic assessment' approach at the outset of themes, units and within sessions is deployed and is evidently impacting upon subsequent planning and provision. (I am directly monitoring this as a major priority.)

Everything is a work in progress. A new curriculum takes years to create and in truth should never sit still or never stop evolving. Daring to do and learning from mistakes has never been more true than when developing a curriculum fit for Mayfield children and their needs. As I speak, I am scrutinising planning to consider the prominence of vocabulary and questions within there and then pursuing this in the classroom and most importantly how these are formed based upon what the teachers learn through their chosen diagnostic assessment systems. I am studying the outcomes from the last term of work. Oh and I am currently designing brain gym mats to assist with the daily revision and consolidation of core knowledge across school. This includes key knowledge and vocabulary for each year group. I am a busy man at the moment!

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