History

History 2020

 

Statement of Intent 

At Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue, we aim to deliver a high-quality history curriculum which gives children an insight into the lives and lifestyles of significant people in the past and how these influenced the shape of the present day. At our academy we believe that, by giving children opportunities to research and use evidence to create a chronological timeline of events, the study of history helps inspire curiosity, and develops an understanding of how events and time periods impact one another. Our children are also given the opportunity to develop perspective and judgement, through learning and understanding the complexity of people’s lives, the relationships between different groups throughout history, and how life has changed over time. 

 

Through the driver of community, we want our children to explore and learn about their local history and be aware of how life here has changed over time. We want our children to be mindful of how and why the lives of their families and ancestors and the society in which they are growing up have changed dramatically through time. Through the driver of possibilities, we want our children to be inquisitive about the world around them, both present and past and to give them equal opportunities to explore the lives of significant individuals and understand how their actions have altered life today. 

 

Through the framework of the National Curriculum, our children will

 

In Key Stage 1: 

·      Understand changes within living memory and beyond living memory which are significant nationally or globally.

·      Investigate historical events, people or places in their own locality.

·      Understand the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to international achievements. 

 

In Key Stage 2:

·      Continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of local, national and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.

·      Note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.

·      Regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference and significance. 

 

Through the teaching of our skills-based curriculum the children cover the content of the National curriculum through four Threshold Concepts and explore these in every year group in order to gradually increase their understanding of each one. 

These are: 

·      Investigate and interpret the past

·      Build an overview of world history 

·      Understand chronology

·      Communicating historically

 

The children will explore these concepts each year group in a cyclical model, building on knowledge learnt in current milestones and previous milestones across a range of contexts, topics and activities.

 

 

Statement of Implementation

Because the threshold concepts are repeated in each year group it is important that children progress in their understanding of them. Our curriculum sets out this progression in the form of three ‘Milestones’. Each Milestone contains a range of descriptors which outline the detail to be discovered within the concept and the depth of coverage. Over a two-year period children will become increasingly familiar with these details by exploring them across a range of contexts. The Milestones are:

Milestone 1 – Years 1 and 2

Milestone 2 – Years 3 and 4

Milestone 3 – Years 5 and 6

The teaching of this cyclical curriculum approach will equip pupils with knowledge which allows them to interpret the past and ask historically valid questions. This helps them to deepen their understanding, communicate historically and use their understanding of chronology to organise events on a timeline and relate them back to one another. By revisiting these areas of learning on regular basis children will remember more, know more and understand more. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the past should help them to deepen their understanding of how and why life has developed throughout time and the impacts of significant events or people. We want our children to gain confidence and have practical experiences of historical knowledge, to help them become more inquisitive and allow them to investigate topics of interest in history. 

Statement of Impact
The successful implementation of this curriculum will result in a fun, engaging and stimulating history education for all pupils. This should then provide children with the foundations for understanding the world around them and how it has changed over time. Taking every advantage of workshops, museums and local experiences will allow children the chance to investigate history first-hand. Pupil voice is used to further develop and evaluate the impact of the History curriculum, through questioning of pupil’s views and attitudes to History, evaluating their responses to gauge children’s enjoyment of the subject and to explore ways to motivate learners further. This will enable all children to flourish, become the very best version of themselves and achieve their full potential, regardless of background, ability or additional needs.