Dovedale Primary SchoolHistory
Intention
We aim to bring History to life at Dovedale by immersing our pupils in experiences both in school and educational visits. We equip our pupils to have a real understanding of when events happened and aim to ignite their curiosity about the past. Alongside historical knowledge and understanding, there is a high focus on specific historical skills.
The teaching of History at Dovedale is intended to equip our pupils to ask pertinent questions about the past, analyse evidence, think critically, appreciate different perspectives and develop informed judgements. This will enable pupils to have transferable skills across other subjects. We believe our pupils should be taught to understand how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. In addition, our curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to explore their own identity through local history topics. Our History curriculum is intended to help pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups.
Implementation
Our History curriculum covers the knowledge and skills outlined in the National Curriculum through broad, challenging and inspiring topics. The content is delivered within a meaningful context, with a clear intended outcome and wherever possible, cross curricular links are exploited. However, teachers make it explicit to the children that they are learning History skills and encourage them to think like ‘Historians’.
At Key Stage 1, topics taught include learning about famous people in the past, changes within living memory and events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally and explicitly linked to our school – The Beatles.
Key Stage 2: The National Curriculum outlines that pupils continue to develop chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across periods they study. Pupils should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms and vocabulary. They should understand that our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources. At Dovedale, we have carefully constructed our units of work to cover the full range of skills and required knowledge in order to achieve this.
Lessons are planned to inspire, engage and challenge pupils in response to their needs with a variety of experiences both in the classroom and out. Our pupils apply their understanding within an extended written piece linked directly to their History theme. Pupils are encouraged to think like Historians and develop their historical enquiry, whilst developing their understanding of chronology, interpretations of evidence, changes within a time and across time periods, and cause and consequence.
Impact
Our formative assessment is used to record pupils’ understanding of an objective and helps to plan for opportunities to learn more and remember more. Each History unit will include a pre-assessment which reviews objectives from previous learning. This is to ensure a clear progression in knowledge, skills and understanding. Leaders conduct book monitoring, learning walks and pupil voice to establish the impact. Our curriculum content is reviewed at the end of each topic.