History

INTENT:      The vision for HISTORY at Lakeside

At Lakeside, we aim to encourage children’s curiosity and fascination of British and world History and the way the people would have lived. We will be studying a range of periods of history starting with local history that the children can link to members their family and spreading around the world whilst using their current lives as a comparison to how people lived in the relevant period of history. The explicit teaching of different historical cultures, traditions and communities from different chronological periods that will allow children to develop an insight into how life has changed throughout history and be able to empathise with the challenges and struggles of daily life that children from history would have faced. We nurture children’s inquisitive nature to explore a range of historical sources both theoretically and physically to allow them to develop their historical investigative skills that will allow them to discover independently about historical periods that interest them and also make links between topics that are in the same geographical area or at similar times in the past. We facilitate purposeful activities for children to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding and to communicate this to a range of audiences.

Curriculum Design, Coverage & Progression 

The History overview details how the national curriculum objectives are mapped out and integrated into topics in each year group, to show full coverage and progression of skills.  The key historical vocabulary to be taught is added to the overview to show clear progression of technical terms. Educational visits, residential and ‘Wow’ events are incorporated into the curriculum to engage and enhance the learning experiences, such as exploring the local area history and the personal links to it and the residential to Beaumanor for World War II.  The History synopsis shows how each year group curriculum build on previous knowledge and skills.

The History curriculum encompasses all the elements of our whole school approach to developing PROUD learners with lifelong skills:  Pride in learning, taking ownership of what we would like to find out about the History of the places that we live in and how we can be independent learners to fulfil this.  Use our Reading skills to research, Oracy to talk confidently about our history learning and pose questions.  Understanding yourself, the history of your local area, your school and your family.  Demonstrating Drive and motivation to engage in a range of activities developing the skills of a ‘Lakeside Historian’ to ultimately answer the Big Question of each Topic of Historical understanding. ?

Children can achieve aspects of the Harmony Pledge through the History curriculum, for example the importance of being democratic is explored through the learning on the history of democracy in the Ancient Greek topic and the importance of being respectful is explored through finding out about how other people lived to be able to empathise with others and show them respect.

IMPLEMENTATION          

The ‘What we are learning about’ for each Year groups history topics will outline the historical progression and skills that we be focussed on in the topic through the ‘Big Question’. This will be supplemented through the use of a knowledge organiser that will be shared with the children at the start and throughout the topic and sent home to parents/carers to allow them to support at home. The knowledge organiser with include an overview of key dates, technical vocabulary and links that can be made with prior learning from other topics.

At the start of each unit, year groups will share the ‘Big picture’ with children to introduce the topic and discuss with the children anything they may already know and what they want to find out to aid their historical development. This can then be integrated into the lessons planning for that sequence of lessons. The ‘Big picture’ sequence will be referred to reinforce the ideas and learning progression and help to assess children’s development and understanding. Assessment will also take place throughout lessons using peer discussions, questioning and activities that allow children to demonstrate their abilities in a safe environment without feeling pressured or judged.

Children’s learning will be supported within lessons through the use of scaffolds which will support with learning during lessons using language structures to instigate enquiries, vocabulary to enhance the children’s depth of knowledge and visual stimulus to engage learners in the topic.

At various intervals the History lead will carry out staff and pupils voices in conjunction with book looks to allow pupils to share their ideas and learning and to give staff the chance to voices their opinions. This will allow good practise and ideas to be identified and also opportunities for development and help such as additional resources, support with subject knowledge and/or CPD.

Good examples of Historical understanding will be celebrated and shared on working walls based on the topic and central displays in classrooms and around the school. The working walls will also display key learning concepts, questions and answers to further understanding and other helpful resources for that topic.  The academy history timeline is located in the main central communal area of school.  All of the History topics are located within the timeline, along with Lakeside specific dates.  Classes use this at the start of topic to develop their chronological understanding and to make connections between prior learning. 

For the Synopsis of History at Lakeside and the History Curriculum Coverage and Progression document, see below: 

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