History

What do we want our children to learn?

At All Saints Academy, we provide a high-quality history education, which helps our children to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. The study of History at All Saints Academy is guided by the National Curriculum for History (2014). The curriculum aims to ensure that all pupil.

know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world;
know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind;
gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’;
understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses;
understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.

The All Saints Academy history curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to investigate Britain’s past and that of the wider world, embed their understanding of chronology and champion their oracy skills to communicate concisely with accurate historical terminology.

What does history teaching and learning look like at ASA?

History is taught in topics throughout the year. The sequencing of the topics has been carefully considered to ensure learning systematically build on previous learning. Each year group covers between two and three history units per year. Where appropriate, we make purposeful, cross-curricular links with other subjects to embed and apply our historical skills so that children remember more. We aim to immerse children into their learning so they have the opportunity to experience a different period of history which ignites their excitement and curiosity about the past.

We have identified three key concepts within our history curriculum which appear across the year groups.

Legacy and impact
Diversity and Equality
Religion, customs and beliefs

Knowledge and understanding around these key concepts builds progressively from EYFS to KS1 to KS2.

Learning is guided by our school specific unit sequencing document. This key document supports planning and ensures clear progression across year groups. Learning is sequenced and builds upon prior knowledge to give children the opportunity to learn more and remember more in a logically sequenced way.

The history curriculum is designed to ensure appropriate diversity in the significant figures that children learn about.

Oracy sits at the heart of our curriculum and, within history, children are given regular opportunities to discuss their learning and develop key communication and language skills such as debate. Vocabulary is mapped out across the history curriculum and this vocabulary is explicitly taught . A working wall within the classroom supports this and vocabulary banks are built upon as a unit is further explored. Knowledge organisers are used for each unit. By design, we aim for children to know more, remember more and apply their existing knowledge and vocabulary.

At the beginning of each new history topic, teachers refer to timelines to develop children’s understanding of chronology.

In addition to the history curriculum, the impact of events in the past are reflected upon within significant events throughout the year, such as Remembrance Day, where all children, take part in Remembrance service.

What is the impact of our history curriculum?

Outcomes in books evidences a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrates the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. At the beginning of each unit, mind maps are used to check existing knowledge. Each lesson starts with a retrieval task which allows children to revisit previous learning.

We share some of our learning on our Twitter feed #ASAHistory.

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