St Stephen's Catholic Primary School and Nursery

Subject Lead: Mrs Lubomski/ Mrs Sykes

 INTENT 

In our study of history at St Stephen’s , we intend that our children will develop:

• an understanding of historical concepts such as change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance;
• an extensive historical knowledge of significant events in British, European and world history,
• a secure understanding of key historical vocabulary;
• an awareness of the nature of evidence, an empathy with the past, an ability to pose historical questions and a sense of chronology and time;
• an understanding of the links between local, regional, national and international history.

 IMPLEMENTATION 

At St Stephens, we strive for children to think as historians.

We place an emphasis on examining historical artefacts and primary sources and give children the opportunity to visit sites of historical significance.

As much as possible, we utilise our area of Skipton to celebrate our local history and make learning more meaningful and relevant. We recognise and value the importance of stories in history teaching, and we regard this as an important way of stimulating interest in the past.

We focus on helping children understand that historical events can be interpreted in different ways, and that they should always ask searching questions about topics studied.

Emphasis is placed on the development of knowledge and a historical perspective alongside new skills.

We recognise that in all classes, children have a wide range of ability in History. We seek to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this by: 

• setting tasks which are open-ended and can have a variety of responses; ‹
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty, some children not completing all tasks; ‹ 
• grouping children by ability in the room, and setting different tasks for each ability group.€‹
• providing resources of different complexity, depending on the ability of the child.
• supporting children individually or in groups. 
• Improving their own learning and performance, through reviewing their work at regular intervals, setting targets for improvement and assessing their achievement. 

We also recognise that children learn differently and therefore seek to provide a variety of ways in which children can present their work. Some examples of this are: ‹

• Teacher presentations, role play, drama, storytelling. €‹
• Question and answer sessions, discussions and debates. €‹
• Individual and group research. ‹
• Investigating artefacts and sources of evidence. €‹
• Fieldwork, and visits to museums and sites of historic interest.
• Communication, through reading and responding to a range of sources of information, when planning and carrying out historical enquiries, through taking part in discussions, and presenting findings in a variety of ways.‹
• Problem-solving, through finding out about the past by investigating a specific question or issue, deciding what information they need to know, identifying relevant sources of information and discussing their conclusions. 

 IMPACT 

Pupils leave St Stephen's with a secure understanding of the History

curriculum, developing a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the historical richness of the local area and its place within the wider historical context

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing children’s knowledge and understanding of topics before and after the units are taught.

• Marking of written work in books.

• Interviewing pupils about their learning.

• Book scrutiny and learning walks where there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.

• Summative assessment of pupils' learning three times a year.