The Rissington School History
subject at a glance history.pdf
Intent
At The Rissington School, we provide high quality aspirational history education that will encourage all pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It also develops their historical enquiry skills, which can be applied to different periods of history throughout their education. Our history curriculum inspires pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching equips our pupils to challenge themselves; to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement. Our history curriculum enables 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.
Our school values of ABC (Aspire Belong Challenge) and Golden Threads are also drivers for our curriculum design.
Aspire – We plan lessons which give the children aspirational experiences, through enquiries, trips or visitors, and days linked to our topics to bring learning to life.
Belong – Our belong value is reflected in helping children to understand their place in the world by developing their historical understanding. They understand the history of life in Britain, the wider world, and their place within it. We work collaboratively to develop our historical skills of interpretation and enquiry.
Challenge – We provide challenge through investigational work, having high expectations and challenging misconceptions.
The Rissington school’s Golden Threads are Resilience, Oracy and Vocabulary and Diversity and Equality.
Resilience – To encourage resilience children are given opportunities to draw conclusions based on historical evidence, as well as working on enquiries that may require working in groups.
Oracy and vocabulary – We expand vocabulary through specific subject teaching of the vocabulary linked to historical topics and concepts, as well as develop oracy through regular discussions on historical interpretations.
Diversity and equality – We make sure diversity and equality is addressed by looking at a diverse range of historians, and important figures in history which is representative of men and women from different backgrounds and cultures.
The Rissington School is a split site school. While we embrace the differences this may bring, the children across both sites belong to one school; and as such receive the same History provision.
Implementation:
Our History curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.
The curriculum planning outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way including:
- Chronological Understanding;
- Historical Understanding;
- Historical Enquiry;
- Interpretations of History;
Our History curriculum ensures that pupils are able build on secure prior knowledge. The content will be planned and organised by each year group through the long-term plan and will follow the Rissington History Overview – Appendix ‘A’. Content knowledge, vocabulary and skills are set out in a greater level of detail in the medium-term plan to meet the needs of the pupils. There is also a progression document which is to be used to ensure planning matches expected progression. Learning objectives should be drawn from the progression documents.
At the Rissington School, History is delivered through subject specific teaching organised into blocks under a theme. Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils. We teach in a two-year cycle of topics (KS1, LKS2, UKS2) that enable our children to develop skills across the curriculum, as well as consolidate knowledge.
Children begin understanding the world in the Early Years. Learning is planned for children based on their interests so that children are able to talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others.
The History units taught are designed to enable the children to consider, to question and to appreciate their own identity and belonging, along with the challenges in their time. It helps them understand the process of change over time and significant developments.
All learning starts by revisiting prior knowledge. This is scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make meaningful connections. Staff model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
Learning is supported through the use of key vocabulary, working walls, medium- and short-term planning that provides children with scaffolding that enables them to retain new facts and vocabulary into their long-term memory.
Learning walls in every classroom provide constant scaffolding for children. Tier three subject specific vocabulary is displayed on the learning walls along with key facts and questions, and model exemplars of the work being taught.
History assessment is ongoing throughout the relevant cross-curricular units of work to inform teachers with their planning of lesson activities and objectives. Summative assessment is completed at the end of each topic where history objectives have been covered; an objective tracker on medium term planning is used to inform teachers and leaders of school improvements, or skills that need to be further enhanced.
Our historians are given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom, where appropriate, to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and deepen their understanding.
Our SEND pupils are able to access the full history curriculum through quality first teaching, as well as adapted resources and support where appropriate.
Impact
At The Rissington School, our pupils are able to talk confidently about what they have learnt in history, using subject specific vocabulary.
In the Early Years, children are able to talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others.
Pupil voice throughout the school demonstrates that pupils enjoy history and are able to recall their learning over time.
Pupils’ work demonstrates that history is taught at an age-appropriate standard across each year group with opportunities planned in to challenge and stretch all learning.
Pupils’ work is of good quality and demonstrates pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.
Pupils’ have learnt about a range of diverse figures from history that are representative of society as a whole.
Medium- and short-term planning shows that all pupils are able to access the History curriculum along with areas of challenge and support.
National curriculum in England: history programmes of study - GOV.UK