History
On this page you will find:
1) A brief overview of our pupils’ journey in history from EYFS to Year 6
2) Our history intent, implementation and impact.
3) Photographs of history activities throughout Gainsborough Primary and Nursery Academy – pupils’ history work, visitors, themed weeks and displays.
In History we will:
Teach a range of detailed period specific knowledge.
Give pupils the opportunity to situate this knowledge in realtion to other significant historical events studied.
We will help pupils develop a strong chronological framework so they can have a sense of the relationships between different historical events and periods.
We will be ensuring that pupils develop knowledge of how historians study the past.
At Gainsborough Nursery and Primary Academy our history curriculum has inclusion at it’s heart; it fulfils the formal requirements of the National Curriculum and it inspires motivation for learning. Our broad and balanced curriculum is bespoke to our pupils and to the community in which they live. Using a sequential approach to learning, children build on previous historical knowledge and skills. Recognising the importance of enriching our pupil’s vocabulary, pupils are introduced to topic specific vocabulary, given opportunities to use this new historical language and revisit it in future lessons.
Our teaching equips pupils with knowledge about the world around them. Through a variety of teaching styles, children gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
The aims of teaching History in our school are:
- To help children develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of local, British and world history. By using a wide vocabulary of everyday historical terms, pupil’s note connections, contrasts and trends over time.
- To teach pupils where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework, using common historical words/phrases, identify similarities/differences between ways of life in different periods of time.
- To inspire pupils’ curiosity and interest in the past so they ask historically valid questions that stretch their knowledge and understanding.
- To show our children that knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources and encourage the use of these artefacts, documents and resources to enable children to find answers to their questions and reflect on their new learning.
- To encourage children to reflect on cause and consequences and create their own viewpoint once a sound knowledge of a topic has been acquired.
Teaching and learning at Gainsborough Primary and Nursery Academy is designed to help pupils remember, over time, curriculum content and to apply their knowledge in different contexts. History lessons focus on developing historical skills with children working as historians.
We plan our curriculum to ensure that we meet the requirement of the national curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum by ensuring that:
- long term plans are developed collaboratively between the curriculum leader and year group colleagues, to ensure coverage for the academic year.
- medium term plans are written creatively and collaboratively, drawing on ideas from CPD (training) opportunities.
- short term plans are used to specifically tailor learning for all abilities.
Each year group has a bespoke yearly curriculum overview, which includes local and British historical knowledge building on previous skills and understanding. Cross curricular links are planned for, with strong links between the history curriculum and high quality texts, that are studied in English. The local area is utilised with opportunities for learning outside the classroom embedded in practice.
In addition to this, the children participate in whole school activities and opportunities within/outside school, all of which aim to enrich and develop the children’s learning and language.
Our History curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression, ensuring that pupils are prepared for the next stage of their education. As children progress throughout the school, they build up a broader historical vocabulary, developing a deeper understanding/appreciation of their local history and its place within the wider context.
Outcomes in books demonstrate evidence of a broad and balanced history curriculum, reflecting pupil’s acquisition of identified key knowledge.
Pupils’ progress is tracked through ongoing assessment for learning. Pupils who keep up with the curriculum objectives are deemed to be making good or better progress. Objectives are revisited at the start of new learning. The impact of our curriculum is also measured through regular book scrutiny, lesson observations and pupil conferences.
