Intent
History is all around us. At Mereside, we believe that the study of history ignites children’s curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Through finding out about how and why the world, our country, culture and local community have developed over time, children understand how the past influences the present. History enables children to develop a context for their growing sense of identity and a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people.
History at Mereside has been planned considering the children first. We want to choose topics that not only cover the national curriculum but also inspire, inform and draw on experiences of the children. We believe strongly that knowledge and skills embedded through foundation subjects such as History can help increase a child’s ability to improve literacy and critical thinking skills. There are also links with other areas of the curriculum including Geography and RE. The purpose of these cross-curricular links is once again to provide opportunities to build knowledge, ease working memory and free up the brain to be making connections and asking questions.
We endeavour to build in opportunities to steadily make manageable steps into the next stage of learning. Harder concepts and skills from the National Curriculum are returned to throughout the child’s experiences and carefully planned right through from Reception to Year Six, this is so that we can be deliberately ambitious in the questions and learning opportunities we provide the children. What children learn through history can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values.
Finally, as a church school, we believe that love is at the heart of all that we do and in terms of History we hope this love is expressed through how we want children to become, caring global citizens who celebrate and value diversity and are good neighbours to all.
Implementation
To ensure high standards in the teaching of History, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school following the PlanBee scheme. History is taught as part of a termly unit, following the National Curriculum, however History frequently makes cross-curricular links. Children will be provided with key words relevant to their historical unit, with them being able to explain their meaning by the end of the specific unit. The local community will be used as frequently as possible, to ensure children can make real-life links as well as gain an understanding of past events. Children will develop researching and enquiry through the use of books and ICT, and be provided with opportunities to showcase their learning through methods including role-play, storytelling, newspaper reporting and poetry.
Impact
At Mereside we want our children to be well equipped with historical skills and knowledge for life after our school in the wider world. We want children to enjoy learning about History, encouraging their enthusiasm to learn and develop their own knowledge in and out of school. We will measure progress through the national outcomes at the end of each unit, this will be supported through end of unit assessments, book monitoring and discussions with children. The use of Flashback 4s at the beginning of each lesson provides children with the opportunity to recall previous learning so that children know more and remember more. Children will be provided with the opportunity to answer questions throughout lessons, as well as time to talk to talking partners in order to gain peer on peer advise and share ideas and knowledge.
