History

Mr Nondo

INTENT

At Marlborough, the teaching of History is held in a high regard. We believe that through high-quality History lessons, we inspire children in their curiosity and fascination to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians.

We teach History by linking learning to a range of topics in which 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 communicate History effectively.

Our History teaching and learning develops 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
Developing a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
Learning the concept of chronology to support children developing sense of period as well as key concepts such as change and causation
The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources.
An excellent understanding of key knowledge, skills and vocabulary across history topics
Developing a secure historical knowledge that children build on each year.
History is taught in thematic units allowing meaningful links with other subjects to be made, thus strengthen connections and understanding for pupils.

IMPLEMENTATION

In ensuring high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught in thematic units, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Marlborough, we ensure that history has the same importance given to it as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain real-life experiences. Each area of study in history is strongly supported by educational visits and in-school workshops which help the children to see artefacts and items from the past, helping to gain clearer picture of history. Time related vocabulary is used within all of our history teaching from Reception to Year Six to enable our children to speak with confidence when comparing time periods, vocabulary increasing with complexity as children move up through the school.

Teaching and Learning, Content and Sequence

Explorers (3-5) – Pupils begin to make sense of their own life-story and family’s history and know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now. This builds a foundation of historical learning for the pupils as they learn before and after as a concept.

Pathfinders (5-7) – Pupils fit people and events into a chronological framework. Learning will focus on people that have lived and events which have occurred mainly within the last 200 years. This helps our children to begin to understand chronology because of the limited time span. The historical content often links to children’s everyday experiences (e.g. inventions such as the ~TV), thus making learning more concrete and less abstract, so that children can begin to make sense of their changing world.

Adventurers (7-9) – Pupils begin to learn about more specific time periods of history, and to develop the narrative within these periods.

Navigators (9-11) – Pupils make connections between periods of history. As children’s knowledge builds and children begin to make connections between events and time periods, for example exploring the connections between leadership between Roman Emperors (“You’re not invited”) and World Leaders (“Wars of the World”).

Skill wheels

Skill wheels show what skills children will practise during history lessons. These are skills that historians use. Each year group from Nursery – Year 6 has their own set of historian skills that children will practise throughout the year. These develop different aspects of what a historian does. Teachers plan lessons and activities that will help practise, reinforce and develop each of these skills.

Concept Connections

Concept Connections are key vocabulary used within history. They cover key substantive concepts that children will encounter throughout their time at Marlborough. Words such as civilisations, communication, war and immigration. Children will encounter these words in their units and will use them to connect ideas in different contexts from previous and future learning. Children will recognise these words by the special logo which is displayed next to these words on displays, flipcharts and knowledge organisers.

SEND Pupils and Personalised Learning

Children with additional needs are included in whole class lessons and teachers provide scaffolding and relevant support as necessary. All children, receive regular group support as part of their history lesson. Lessons are differentiated clearly to ensure all children can access the learning and are challenged. Where children require additional support, a variety of strategies or resources are used to support children further to ensure that they have secured the small step before moving on. Examples of these may be in the form of artefacts, videos or pictures. Lessons are personalised to address the individual needs and requirements for a class.

Feedback and Assessment

Throughout all teaching and learning, children are continuously assessed against age related expectations in a variety of ways. In history lessons, children receive personalised feedback on their work from the teacher in line with our Marking and Feedback Policy. This not only supports and challenges the pupils but live feedback also guides them with their critical thinking during history lessons. Through our teaching, we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment notes where appropriate and using these to inform our teaching. Teachers use formative assessments such as live feedback to inform their planning of the unit in order to maximise learning potential in lessons.

Historic Vocabulary and chronology

Historical vocabulary is used in lessons by all teachers. Children can refer to vocabulary that is displayed on the thematic working wall and in knowledge organisers that the pupils have in their books. The use of correct historical vocabulary helps children to progress in their history learning. Concept connections vocabulary is highlighted on knowledge organisers as well as on displays. Once per term each class will create a class timeline of any history that they know, this could be periods, people and/or events.

Resources

Children have access to a range of resources in history lessons. These can be in the form of pictures as well as videos and the access to laptops for historical enquiry and research based lessons. Some units also have access to artefacts that are used to bring history to life. These include Stone Age, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Roman, Ancient Greek, Victorian and Anglo Saxon artefacts.

Home Learning

Homework is set to develop and review children's learning. Where possible, links are made with other subjects across the curriculum.

Cross Curricular Links

History is taught in thematic units that have cross curricular links with other foundation subjects such as Art, Geography, Science, Drama, Music, Computing and PSHE. History also has cross curricular links with English and each year group will have a programme of study linked with a period in history. This supports children in making links with other subjects, thus broadening their knowledge and understanding as well as their development of skills.

Whole School Events

There are several history based whole school events where pupils take part in a range of activities and competitions. To name a few, we teach the pupils about:

Black History Month
Guy Fawkes Day/ Bonfire Night
Remembrance Day
Holocaust Memorial Day

Knowledge Organisers

At the start of each new topic, knowledge organisers are in their Dimensions books for all students. History knowledge organisers provide a summary of the key facts and essential knowledge that pupils need within a unit of work.

Staff CPD

All staff are encouraged to raise questions, seek support and request further training if needed in order to ensure everyone is confident in what they teach. Good practice is always shared between staff and all CPD is used to inform teaching and learning across school. Staff subject knowledge allows the intentions of our history curriculum to be delivered successfully and we continually strive to build upon the excellent understanding of the expectations of the curriculum that our staff have.

Leadership

The History Leader is expected to:

Attend CPD to continually develop their understanding of history and how to progress pupils’ learning.
Support colleagues in the planning and assessment of history to ensure consistency across the school.
Monitor the teaching and learning across the school to develop key lines of enquiry that will ensure a quality first teaching and learning of history.
Bring about positive practical and sustainable change.
Work alongside the senior leadership team to interrogate and analyse key data to inform on progress and future actions.

IMPACT

The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at Marlborough are equipped with historical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

We aspire for our pupils to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about history, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.

As a result of the History curriculum at Marlborough, you will see:

Children who gain coherent knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world
Children who are inspired, curious, ask questions and think critically
Children who recognise similarities and differences between periods of time and to see how the past has shaped the present
Children who analyse sources of evidence, developing their historical knowledge and skills and to piece together the information to understand the past.
Children who develop an understanding of chronology, and to see the ‘big picture’, allowing them to make connections between different periods of the past and the present

Quality first teaching which uses a range of activities and teaching methods
Children who are engaged and challenged
Children who can confidently talk about their learning and make cross-curricular links
Children who have a positive view of History due to a learning environment where History is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject