History at Heyes Lane Primary School
Our Vision
At HLPS, we want our pupils to have the knowledge and skills to think like historians. We want to foster interests and passions and teach our pupils of the significance of learning about, and learning from the past. We believe that understanding the past and constantly evaluating it helps pupils to become knowledgeable future citizens. It is our intention to nurture a love of History as an academic discipline with huge relevance to the modern world and its future development. Pupils will develop a sound knowledge of chronology, of historical periods and both local and international events. Our History curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way.
Using knowledge, evidence and understanding of key concepts about the impact historical periods have had on Britain, our pupils are taught to explore, question, synthesise and infer. Skilfully framing questions and looking at different perspectives are important skills pupils across key stages will be taught in order to delve deeper into historical eras. Pupils will understand and appreciate that curiosity, discussion and critical thinking are essential tools for historians.
We believe it is necessary to impart a respect for historical evidence and its ability to paint a picture of the past. In a world of misinformation, pupils will be taught that History is not merely a series of uncontested facts and events, but a matter of debate with many standpoints to explore. Our historians will be able to explain clearly how sources and opinions can give us an insight into how people around the world used to live and how these interpretations might differ.
Curriculum Content
Beginning with the National Curriculum and teaching this content to a high standard, our curriculum design for History carefully considers the knowledge, skills and concepts that are central to the effective teaching and learning of the subject and places these effectively to produce a well sequenced and progressive curriculum model.
We believe that the best learning is activated through enquiry-based approaches. Enquiry questions (Big Questions) allow teachers to frame the narratives and to focus the learning within a unit of work. Simply, they shape the curriculum content chosen and are critical to developing the substantive and disciplinary knowledge of the pupils so that they think like an historian. Enquiry based Themes could involve the application of Mantle of the Expert, immersive hooks, educational visits or drama based activities. These principles and enquiry led learning are all taught with end points in mind.
Our five defining core beliefs and values, alongside our conceptual model underpin the teaching of History at HLPS. Our belief is that it is important to champion individuality and personal growth to help appreciate children’s own identity and the challenges in their time. With enquiry led historical topics that ignite curiosity, the History teaching at HLPS inspires and leads to learning that lasts.
Substantive concepts help to connect learning and, in History, teachers continually use them in a consistent yet creative way. They allow children to understand the meaning of words and process new learning more efficiently. In turn, this enables children to deepen their learning, expand their understanding and gain ‘sticky’ knowledge. Overarching concepts allow teachers and children to examine each subject in a deeper context rather than focussing on the pursuit of knowledge. End points for the foundation subjects are underpinned by the overarching concepts which show progression through the years. In history, the overarching concepts are:
- Significance and change
- Similarity and difference
- Reasons and resullts
We believe following our conceptual model using substantive and overarching concepts allows for deeper learning and connections to be made between historical periods which helps pupils to make sense of the world around them. For example, during our ‘How has crime and punishment changed throughout the ages?’ theme in Year 5, children are able to acquire the relevant knowledge throughout key historical periods while deepening their knowledge of the narrative poem The Highwayman.
Progression & Outcome
Progression in History is seen within the journey that the children take from Early Years, through KS1 and KS2 to culminate in the ‘historians’ that the children will have become when they leave us after Year 6. When design and planning history teaching and learning, teachers will always incorporate the following principles:
- Increasing the effectiveness of the learner. As the children move up through the school they will be asking increasingly sophisticated enquiry questions and finding and evaluating answers from an increasing range and sophistication of sources.
- The pupils will engage with an increasing depth of the substantive and overarching concepts. They will be able to make links and connect new learning to previous learning and therefore build an increasingly coherent understanding of History which is evident in the end points They will have increased the breadth and depth of their knowledge of historical periods and through a well sequenced curriculum incorporating the 3R’s, they will be able to remember more of this knowledge in a summarised form.
- They will become increasingly better ‘historians’ – they will build their understanding of the key features of history as a subject and be able to make more links between historical periods. Children will also have developed their disciplinary historical skills (chronological understanding, historical enquiry and evidence and historical interpretation).
