History

Intent

It is the intention of St Jude’s to give our children a History curriculum that is more than remembering events and the dates that they took place. Although these are important to history, it is ‘why’ things happened that must be investigated, and what effects these historical events have on our lives today. We aim to challenge our children and create historical ‘detectives’ who are curious about the past and have the perseverance to find the answers to historical questions. Our intent is to create ‘detectives’ who have the potential to find, discover and answer the ‘what and why’ questions as well as the ‘when’ questions.

In order to achieve this, we aim to provide children with many different sources of historical evidence, provide opportunities for children to evaluate the usefulness of these sources and to be aware that when looking at evidence there is often a historical bias. By looking at different resources and different interpretations of events, children will recognise that this can lead to different conclusions. We aim to provide an enriching learning experience that enables children to come to their own conclusions through the evaluation of a variety of sources.

Every aspect of our lives is affected by what has gone before. By having a clear, rounded grasp of history not only enables our children to know where we have been, but perhaps more importantly, where we are going.

Implementation

History at St Jude’s is linked to other topics such as English units of work, geographical enquiries and often Art and DT units of work in order to help embed learning and to show children that learning is cross-curricular. School has identified the key knowledge, skills and topics required to give a broad and balanced history curriculum and this is cross referenced to, and in line with, the national curriculum expectations.

Topics begin with an enquiry question that will be central to the whole of the learning about that particular topic. Through this enquiry question, children will generate their own questions they wish to answer and information they wish to discover. An overall plan will be created by the teacher, this will include a sequence of lessons and a knowledge organiser that answer the key enquiry question and allow children to discover, enquire and interpret historical sources of information.

It is our intention to deliver stimulating history lessons that immerse pupils in their learning by using multiple historical sources, as well as historical artefacts. We provide our children with enrichment opportunities and experiences by visiting historical sites both locally and nationally. We are incredibly fortunate that in our local area we can see and engage with historical events; from the ruins of a roman villa, through to the coal mines and canals that helped power the UK as it led the world during the industrial revolution.

Impact

Our history curriculum and sequence of learning, enables children to demonstrate a progression of skills and knowledge as they move through the year groups. Children will have taken part in high quality visits that further develop their historical understanding.

Children will be able to demonstrate

A thorough knowledge of timelines and how they are used to map events.
A wide ranging historical vocabulary.
An ability to interpret history, develop conclusions and communicate their findings in a variety of ways.
An understanding of events that have helped shape the world we live in.
Enquiry skills that enable them to pursue their own interests within a topic.
An understanding of how historical events have impacted upon the local area.