St Matthew's
History
History at St Matthew's - Step into Stories of the Past
We are Historians
"We are not makers of history. We are made by history." – Martin Luther King.
Why should we learn about History?
From stone tablets to smartphones, from chariots to self-driving cars, history has provided us with a sea of ideas. These ideas provide useful insights to understand our ancestors. They give us a peek into how their lives were enjoyed and the problems they faced. Analysing these ideas helps us understand where we’ve been and make predictions about where we’re going. History stimulates children’s interest and understanding about people and events in the past. Our pupils develop a sense of chronology, identity, heritage and cultural understanding through the different topics taught. We think critically about values such as law, democracy and equality and how events in the past have influenced life today.
How will it help children in later life?
History has a major impact on our lives today. We are who we are because of people in history and historical events. We can begin connecting history to our modern lives to help humanity build a more positive future. As well as knowledge of key events and people, history focuses on developing key skills of enquiry, interpretation, perspective and problem-solving. Children will develop a strong sense of historical identity within Bradford, West Yorkshire, North England, United Kingdom and the rest of the World.
What do we want for St Matthew's children?
Children at St Matthew's gain the opportunity to study key periods of British history, ancient civilisations and influential people who have shaped our lives today both in Europe and worldwide. History, geography and religious education are closely linked through our topic led approach which we feel is the best model for our children and the community we serve - topics give the children something to ‘pin’ their learning onto. Visits to historical sites and museums give children cultural capital and a point of reference going forwards with their learning in history, and also across the curriculum.
The curriculum bases great emphasis on both historical knowledge, historical skills and concepts. On their own, neither of these are effective at embedding a knowledge and understanding of history long term, or giving children the opportunity to get better at history.
Children are taught to embody the role of a ‘historian’ and, despite the 3D curriculum, the subject of history is referred to during topic lessons that focus on the development of children’s historical skills. Children are given opportunities to develop their skills as a historian through motivating lines of enquiry where they interpret evidence and communicate their ideas. Children also gain a sense of historical perspective and the development of chronological understanding through texts studied in English which may include both literature and non-fiction works.
The importance of chronology to secure long-term knowledge should also be noted. This includes both sequencing periods of history as well as knowing and understanding characteristics of specific eras. Our curriculum is designed with this in mind so that eras and people of significance can be revisited at different times to ensure that children can grasp how one particular era sits with another. Planning units of learning using key historical concepts, such as change and continuity, require children to draw on earlier learning and make comparisons and contrasts. This creates children who think historically and are confident with their knowledge. To assist with chronology, each class has a visual timeline mapping the topics with historical focus taught throughout the school. These timelines are useful cross-curricular resources and are often referred to in other subjects such as music and art. Chronology in history is so important it has been classified as both disciplinary and substantive knowledge.
Intent
At St Matthews we aim to offer a high-quality History education that will help pupils gain a coherent understanding of Britain’s past and that of a wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
Implementation
Our History topics are aligned with The National Curriculum expectations, it is planned and delivered in a systemic and progressive way. Our units were planned carefully and created to be relatable for our children; to inspire curiosity, promote a love of reading and develop a love of lifelong learning.
History is taught on a termly basis and is taught as a stand-alone lesson as well as implemented throughout a range of core and foundation subjects. This may include extended pieces of writing in English, ordering time in mathematics and exploring how cartography has developed over the different historical periods in geography.
Our History curriculum enables children to make connections, revise, recap previous History knowledge and build upon the knowledge they have, through the progression visible throughout the school from Nursery to year 6. In Early Years, children are given opportunities within their continuous provision to create links to History.
What does this look for our children?
Children begin every topic by consolidating concepts from the previous topics through retrieval tasks and re-visiting prior vocabulary. The Grammarsaurus scheme is a well-structured curriculum that sets out both the substantive and disciplinary knowledge children need to acquire by the end of their primary education. The programme builds a strong and increasingly complex schema that allows pupils to make connections between knowledge, embedding it into their long-term memory.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children learn historical skills as part of the ‘Understanding the World’ area of learning. Within this area of learning, children will be guided to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them – from visiting parks, libraries and museums to meeting important members of society such as police officers, nurses and firefighters. In addition, listening to a broad selection of stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems will foster their understanding of our culturally, socially, technologically and ecologically diverse world. As well as building important knowledge, this extends their familiarity with words that support understanding across domains. Enriching and widening children’s vocabulary will support later reading comprehension.
Children work towards the following Early Learning Goal (ELG), where children at the expected level of development will:
- Talk about the lives of the people around them and their roles in society;
- Know some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been learnt in class;
- Understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling.
The early learning goals in the EYFS aim to guide children in making sense of and talking about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. An emphasis on storytelling and use of books is also evident. At St Matthew's, enquiry, communication and exploration are central to all aspects of the EYFS, and form the foundation for future history learning.
Many children within the EYFS have younger and/or older siblings who they will see being involved in activities at a different level. This can be used to extend the children’s learning and understanding of themselves and the world around them. By the time children are in Reception, they will be increasingly aware of the changes in routines during different times of the day and seasons of the year. Using themselves as starting points, children begin to learn that as they grow up they are increasingly able to do more things for themselves independently. Planned activities develop early historical skills such as enquiry and using evidence as well as disciplinary knowledge such as similarity and difference and chronology.
Teaching staff in the EYFS have a strong understanding of effective strategies for the teaching of early history. The curriculum is designed to help children embed their learning in order to integrate new knowledge and larger concepts. Teaching staff are trained in checking children’s learning and understanding, through questioning and formative assessment methods. Through this engagement with children, all staff are then able to provide suitable scaffolding or extension to support children in consolidating their learning of key historical concepts or challenging them further so that they reach their individual potential. At this stage recording historical thinking is encouraged whether this is pictorial or more formal written methods. At all times historical language and new vocabulary is prioritised.
Progression of Knowledge, Skills and Understanding
Our history curriculum has been driven by pedagogy about cognition and learning. The ‘Progression of Knowledge, Skills and Understanding in History’ document refers to how historical concepts and historical knowledge are revisited year on year to embed and create ‘hereafter knowledge’. This instinctive layer of knowledge quietly underpins all later historical learning and there is a cumulative effect of teaching across key stages.
Impact
History at St Matthews is taught discreetly, there are cross curricular links with other subjects. By the end of each unit of learning, children will have a greater understand and in-depth knowledge of the unit question.
Inclusion
Adaptive teaching is key to delivering an effective and inclusive curriculum. All pupils' starting points are considered and activities and work is matched to ensure pupils reach their full potential, whilst supporting the child's learning. Adult support, a range of activities, equipment, scaffolding, questioning and resources can enable children of all abilities to access learning.
Our school will ensure that:
- all children have entitlement to a broad and balanced, enriching curriculum
- all children enjoy an active involvement in History
- all children have opportunities to experience a broad and balanced range of history activities
- all children have opportunities to learn about history from different times and cultures
- all children will be given equal access to the experience of History regardless of their gender, race, disability, medical or other needs
- teachers use a variety of approaches that are matched to the activity and the ability of the children
Research
Research frames our thinking in what we teach and how we deliver it to our children to ensure teaching and learning has maximum impact.
Please see references to the research linked above:
DfE History programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 - National Curriculum in England
DfE Development Matters: Non-Statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage
History Recommended Reads
If you want to learn more about History, why not try our recommended reads by following the links below...
