Intent:

The aim of History teaching at St Teresa’s, is to ensure children gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim to create enthusiastic and inquisitive historians who are able to make links between the past and how this influences the world we know today. Throughout their journey through the ages, we will encourage children to become active, independent and confident learners.

Our exciting History topics aim to inspire children's curiosity to know more about the past – locally, nationally and around the world. They will be given numerous opportunities to immerse themselves within different cultures, countries and communities of the past. Our curriculum will help students develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people as well as foster a sense of identity and an increased understanding of their  position in their own community and the world.  They will be given opportunities to achieve this through trips to local areas of interest, local museums, drama and with the access to historical artefacts. There is a breadth of topics to pique their interest such as, ‘The History of Ashford’, ‘The Groovy Greeks,’ ‘The Great Fire of London’ and ‘The Shang Dynasty of China’.

As developing historians, they will learn to understand concepts such as chronology, continuity - change, cause - consequence and similarity - contrast. As they progress through the year groups, they  will be encouraged to develop historical enquiry skills, critical thinking and build on knowledge gained from previous years. They will be encouraged to think both carefully and critically as they develop the capability to question historical events by understanding that historical evidence can be told from several viewpoints and therefore interpretations may differ.

As their historical knowledge gains momentum, they will build upon and improve your critical thinking, research and enquiry skills until they are a confident and successful young historian both personally and academically.

Implementation:

• Planned lessons and sequences of lessons - History is taught from Yr1 up for at least one term, every season.  They participate in a weekly structured History lesson as specified on the curriculum map, with occasional blocking of lessons to facilitate deep learning on occasions.
• Knowledge Organisers - Children are provided with a tailored knowledge organiser to support their historical knowledge and development of topic vocabulary. This will be given to them at the start of each topic and used as a reference point and revision aid. These will also be made available so parents can support their children at home. 
• Enquiry - Each History topic will start with enquiry questions.  The sequence of lessons will enable the children to find answers to the questions and understand the historical context at that time.   At the end of the topic, the enquiry questions will form the basis for teacher assessment. 
• Trips - Children may attend trips throughout school to further their historical knowledge and enhance their experiences. These provide the opportunity to learn new facts, take part in workshops and provide real life experiences to contextualise their learning. 
• Cross curricular links - Teachers regularly make cross curricular links to other subjects such as Maths (Time, chronology), DT (Creating Roman shields) and Art (Roman mosaics)
• Progression of Skills - Class teachers use their Long-Term Plans alongside the progression of skills document to ensure skills build over time and to teach age appropriate lessons. This will ensure every child's  history skills are built on and progressed throughout their school years. 
• Books - Children will have access to a range of texts that support their topic, both fiction and non-fiction, available in their classes and in the school library.
• Sources- Where possible teachers will seek to provide opportunities for children to see historical artefacts and a range of both primary and secondary historical sources to support their learning and interpretation of evidence. 
• Monitoring - The History Leader observes lessons in each Key Stage, engages in pupil voice and undertakes learning walks to track pupil participation and works with staff to continually improve History provision in the school.

Impact:

• Children are assessed on their prior knowledge before a topic starts to ensure a sequence of lessons is appropriate for the children's current level of understanding and knowledge and to identify gaps and misconceptions. This ensures teaching and planning is adapted to a class and all of its learners. 
• Teachers use formative assessment to evaluate whether children are able to perform the skills outlined in our progression of skills document and when making judgements as to whether children have achieved the expected outcomes for each year of work.
• Children’s knowledge is assessed at the end of a topic using a ‘hot task.’ This is 3-4 questions the children have been learning about and answering through a sequence of lessons. The children complete these independently to assess their final understanding and progress.
• Within lessons, children are given the opportunity to build and demonstrate those skills individually and in context through activities and group work.
• Children demonstrate a curiosity and engagement for the subject throughout the school, motivating them to learn. 
• Children understand how historical events link and their chronological order as they move through the school. They will understand historical interpretation and enquiry. 
• The vast majority of children will meet age related expectations in History.
• They will develop a sense of identity through learning about events in the past. 
• Pupil voice is encouraged and taken into account, where children are given the opportunity to voice their thoughts on History learning.