Intent

At Flamstead Village School, we intend to spark an interest and curiosity in pupils and lead them to enquire more about the past. Our high-quality history lessons lead pupils to build upon knowledge and previous skills, beginning to think and act as historians. Pupils’ knowledge and skills are developed as they progress through the school. Learning about History through discreet teaching and in a cross-curricular way, the pupils begin to understand the chronological links between different topics. We motivate our pupils to be active learners by engaging them with a range of learning opportunities, enrichment activities and trips that give each individual an opportunity to question and embrace the past in both their inside and outside learning environments. The curriculum we are designing aims to embrace the use of historical evidence within lessons to support pupils in their enquiry and understanding of each topic. We aim to provide pupils with opportunities to support, evaluate and challenge themselves as learners, developing their critical and analytical approach to thinking and learning.

Implementation

Pupils’ knowledge and skills are built up and developed as they progress through the school. Their growing knowledge and skills about the past should help them to deepen their understanding of World History, the relationship between significant past events and the links to their lives today. History is taught in blocks throughout the year to enable pupils to achieve depth in their learning. By the end of Year 6, the school hopes to produce pupils who have a chronological understanding of British History. Pupils are able to make comparisons and connections between different time periods and their own lives. This is interlinked with studies of World History. Planning is informed by and aligned with the National Curriculum. Consideration is also given to how we are enabling all pupils to make progress from their starting points. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows their own curriculum, which aims for pupils to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year. We try to organise visitors and trips to enhance the learning experience for all.

Impact

Our History curriculum is planned to demonstrate progressions across the EYFS and primary phases. The impact of our curriculum is measured against the objectives laid out in the National Curriculum, using the following approaches:

• A celebration of learning each term which demonstrates progression across the school (through shared class assemblies);
• Pupil discussions about their learning;
• Engagement in enrichment opportunities such as trips; home learning; working in outdoor learning environments;
• Tracking pupils' progress through summative assessment for each topic.