History

History at Fagley Primary School

Intent

At Fagley Primary school, we endeavour to teach History and historical enquiry within a broad and balanced curriculum. Pupils leave Fagley with a secure understanding of chronology; both in Britain and the wider world. Through carefully planned, progressive lessons, pupils are taught about the significance of different historical periods, key historical figures and how History has influenced their lives today. They will foster an understanding of the wider world and how people have developed from prehistory to today. Our intention is that children learn both about History and from History adopting a curiosity and awareness of how History has been interpreted by different people at different times. Through the study of historical evidence and through exploring their local area, pupils will develop a deep understanding of the rich History of our locality, Bradford. Perhaps more poignantly, pupils will leave our school aware of today’s challenges and how they will be viewed historically in later years.

Implementation

The National Curriculum is used to plan and deliver the teaching of History at Fagley Primary in a systematic and progressive way. Our History curriculum has been carefully constructed and sequenced around key concepts and themes to ensure that history is taught in a spiral, not linear, manner. We enable children to make connections, revise and recap previous History units taught. Using pictures, photographs, film clips, key vocabulary and historical evidence as a starting point, pupils are encouraged to discuss and reason with curiosity about what they are presented with and how this can be interpreted. Having studied historical evidence, pupils are encouraged to react to History and use this knowledge to discuss, present, debate, re-enact and write from different historical perspectives. This embeds and consolidates pupils’ understanding of History and its impact on society. In the wider, broad and balanced curriculum, pupils are exposed to a diverse range of stories and poems from different historical periods and a range of ethnicities, with the intention of deepening their knowledge of History further. At Fagley Primary, historical learning is made significantly more memorable due to our carefully planned trips, educational visitors and workshops.

By the time children leave Fagley Primary School they will have:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events, and contexts from a range of historical periods and of historical concepts and processes.
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas very confidently in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry. 
• A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways. 
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgments.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics.

Impact

Our history curriculum offers high quality and well planned lessons which encourage progression. Teachers deliver a skill and knowledge based curriculum that develops and builds upon prior learning and understanding. The impact of the history curriculum is assessed in a variety of ways. Analysis of learning, pupil interviews and informal learning walks are used by the subject leader to gain an insight of History teaching across the school. Children will have a deep knowledge of the past, respect for its people and an appreciation of both British and world history.