History

Intent

When teaching History at Glenthorne, we intend to instil a curiosity and a passion for understanding the past through our well-rounded and inspiring curriculum that is catered to the needs of all pupils. In this, students will develop a comprehensive knowledge of the past and its events, with the intention to improve every students’ cultural consideration, understanding of the world around them and their own heritage. Children at Glenthorne receive motivating learning experiences and inspiration days to ignite a curiosity at the start of each new topic. This immersive experience excites and invigorates the children’s minds and gets them enthused for their future learning. Children are encouraged to think critically, ask questions and use evidence to help them gain an understanding of the past. 

Through our History teaching, we aim to:

• ensure our pupils know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world

• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world

• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses

•  understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used 

• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts and understanding the connections

Implementation

We implement our approach through:

• Delivering high-quality lessons that are appropriately challenging for all pupils.
  
  
• Incorporating key vocabulary into all History lessons.
  
  
• Starting every new topic with an inspiration day to engage children in their new learning.
  
  
• Thinking questions are used at the end of each lesson to give children the chance to think critically about an open ended question. 
  
  
• Regularly giving children time to re-address previously taught concepts to ensure key information is embedded in their long term memory.

Impact

Pupil voice - Children at Glenthorne have expressed a love of History learning and a strong enthusiasm for their Inspiration days. Across Key Stage One and Two, children enjoy learning new Historical facts as well as recalling previously learnt knowledge.

Evidence in knowledge - Topic books across school show a range of knowledge and skills from every child.
 

Evidence in skills - Pupils use the correct vocabulary when discussing historical events and have a good understanding of chronology. Students confidently use a range of sources to find out about the past and can assertively ask questions.

Breadth of study - Children at Glenthorne study a wide range of significant historical aspects throughout their time at school. This knowledge is also revisited the following year to enable children to gain a deeper understanding of the time period or event they are studying. Teachers across school have also taken part in ‘Sticky knowledge’ training. This means that they have a clear idea of the key concepts taught across the whole school and are able to provide children with chances to revisit this information in engaging short activities to ensure the information is embedded in their long term memory.

Data – Assessment grids have been produced for each year group showing the historical skills children need to master. The use of coloured stars allow us to track pupil’s attainment and progress for these skills.