History
The study of history at Holy Family involves engaging pupils in investigating questions about people and events in the past in order to enable them to better understand their lives today and for a future as more informed and enlightened citizens. Through the study of history pupils also develop a wide range of critical thinking skills, which enable them to understand the contested nature of knowledge and to distinguish between ‘fact’ and subjectivity when it comes to reaching conclusions and making judgements about the past.
Our History curriculum is designed so that the children are introduced to key historical concepts as well as significant events and figures throughout the past. These concepts are revisited, built upon and extended as they move through our school.
Through the use of Kagan's theory of cooperative learning, children have the opportunity for collaborative work, oral rehearse and discussions based around critical thinking. This allows them to embed learning within their working memory and through concise, repeated retrieval tasks this knowledge is drawn upon throughout each year group, allowing them to remember prior learning.
Adding to that, our use of the redundancy approach maintains a manageable cognitive load. We aim to enhance the children's learning through carefully chosen texts and images to support their learning. This 'stripped back' approach allows the children time to carefully analyse these resources: investigating, discussing, analysing, comparing and evaluating. All of which lead to a positive learning experience for all of the children.
We use CUSP to enhance our curriculum. Our History curriculum is progressive and builds upon knowledge previously taught in school. Underpinning each topic, is six substantive concepts and six disciplinary knowledge strands:
Substantive Concepts
- Community
- Knowledge
- Invasion
- Civilisation
- Power
- Democracy
Disciplinary Knowledge
- Chronology
- Cause and consequence
- Change and continuity
- Similarity and difference
- Evidence
- Significance
History Long Term Plan
EYFS
In the Foundation Stage children will be taught History through the Specific Area, Understanding the World. In the Early Years children begin to learn that as they grow up they are increasingly able to do more things for themselves independently and through first hand experiences, they are introduced to the concept of time and change. There will be a focus on themselves, their family and their immediate environment. Children will sequence events and explore patterns and routines. Children will be encouraged to talk about their findings and record them by drawing, writing or model making. These emerging skills and development of knowledge and understanding can be used to explore crucial early historical skills.