History

History

‘History is who we are and why we are and the way we are’ (David McCullough).

At Wheelers Lane Primary School, the teaching and learning of history provides an inspirational, creative and empathetic learning experience for our children, where the past is ‘awakened’.

At Wheelers Lane Primary School, the teaching and learning of history provides an inspirational, creative and empathetic learning experience for our children, where the past is ‘awakened’. The intent of our history curriculum is to enable our children to gain an extensive understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We inspire our children to act as historians and develop curiosity about the past and their own heritage. Through our curriculum, our children understand and interpret the diversity of historical periods and explore how these have shaped their identities, society and the challenges of their time.

In order to provide an enriching learning experience for our children, we employ and deliver the following essential skills to support them in becoming curious and inquisitive historians:

- The ability to think critically, question, discuss and evaluate the past;
- The ability to use evidence to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views;
- To develop a comprehensive understanding of significant historical figures, events and contexts from a range of historical periods and how these have impacted Britain today.

At Wheelers Lane Primary, we have implemented a History curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. Our History curriculum has been designed with a focus on chronology and sequence coherence, which allows our historians to make clear links and connections between previous, current and future learning. Learning is also scaffolded through the use of subject specific vocabulary cover sheets in Key Stage 2, to support our children to retain new language in their long term memory. For our History curriculum, we employ a 'working backwards' approach.

The children are presented with an open-ended enquiry question at the very beginning of their learning journey based on the unit of History they are studying. The enquiry question is the title of the unit of History the children are studying. This works as a hook for the children and immediately promotes discussion and debate from the onset of the learning journey. Throughout the learning journey, staff model subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the original enquiry question, which allow the children to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.At the end of each unit, the children showcase their new knowledge and learning by answering the original enquiry question in a creative and expressive manner.

Assessment of learning in History is based on a formative approach, where staff provide verbal and written feedback to our children during lessons and post lessons. Subsequently, this informs teachers when planning future lessons, where they use their expertise to carefully structure an inspiring learning journey as they see best fitting to their class.

Our children are given a variety of enriching experiences both in and out of the classroom to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding across a range of historical eras.

At Wheelers Lane Primary, our children thoroughly enjoy History and are confident when discussing what they have learnt. They are able to use subject specific vocabulary correctly and make impressive connections between historical eras. Children's work is consistently of a high quality and demonstrates that pupils are acquiring knowledge and skills and are able to apply both effectively.

As our children make their journey through the school, they are equipped with critical thinking, a sense of curiosity and the ability to ask perceptive questions. In turn, when they leave us, our children are accomplished historians, with the ability to learn lessons from the history they have learnt to influence the decisions they make in their future lives.

History

Curriculum Documents