Intent
At Oval, we believe that History is an exciting and engaging part of our school curriculum and that a high-quality History curriculum will provide children with skills, knowledge, and vocabulary to understand Britain and the wider worlds past. Our curriculum is carefully sequenced and knowledge rich, focusing on what children need to know and retain, whilst also aiming to inspire pupils’ fascination about the history of the world around them. Pupils will develop an enhanced knowledge of the past alongside places, significant people, and events through time. The knowledge obtained also works to develop skills such as enquiring and posing questions, thinking critically, considering evidence, and evaluating arguments, all skills invaluable as they continue their journey in future education or employment.
Implementation
Within our history curriculum, we focus on three core strands of history: understanding the past and chronology, British history, and Global history. The curriculum is devised to ensure all children make connections throughout history as their learning journey develops and continues. As the children’s learning journey develops, explicit links and connections are made to continually build upon prior learning and challenge their historical skills. This is done through concrete teaching in class and with assistance from cross-curricular links to key texts within reading and writing and other subjects such as geography and Art & DT.
Within Key Stage 1, children develop their understanding of the past, beginning with things familiar to them and within their living memory, studying toys, transport, and the seaside within Year 1. Moving through to Year 2, children expand their knowledge to beyond living memory, however still staying within Britain, looking at the Great Fire of London and Kings and Queens. This is also expanded to individuals who have made a difference, again relevant and likely to be known to them.
In Key Stage 2, the curriculum splits into two main strands – British and Global history. British history focuses on early civilisations within modern day Great Britain. This is taught chronologically, from Stone Age Britain in Year 3 to Roman Britain in Year 4 and culminating in the Anglo-Saxons, Scots and Vikings in Year 5.
After this chronological study, children then focus on WW1 and WW2, putting together their knowledge and skills developed and note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms.
Global history within KS2 is related to the Geographical studies of each year group studied to allow children to make better connections. These civilisations chosen often overlap and allow the children to make comparisons between multiple civilisations founded around similar times. The children begin their journey looking at the Ancient Egyptians in Year 3, the Ancient Maya and Romans in Year 4, Baghdad and the Middle East in it’s Golden Age in Year 5 and finishing off with the Ancient Greeks in Year 6.
Throughout the implementation of the curriculum, our lessons are scaffolded to support and assist pupils access the learning. Teachers ensure that vocabulary is central to all learning and that children are understanding the historical vocabulary relevant to both the lesson and topic. Such differentiation allows teachers to provide high quality teaching which promotes a high ceiling for all children to achieve their best.