As a school, we maintain strong links to the National Curriculum guidelines to ensure all aspects, knowledge and skills of History are being taught across all year groups. We use progression grids, knowledge mats and vocabulary spines to ensure there are clear skills, knowledge and language progression throughout school. Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details some key information, dates and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and is used as a reference document. Woven within our curriculum are our threads. These are specifically chosen historical concepts which the children revisit throughout KS1 and KS2. As the children revisit each historical concept, they build on previously taught learning, developing their understanding and knowledge of each thread, whilst observing how they change throughout time.
History is taught every other half term, once a week and by the end of Year 6, we hope that children will be secure in drawing comparisons and making connections between different time periods and their own lives. They will gain a good sense of chronological understanding of British History from the Stone Age to the present day. Where appropriate we use historical artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past. We aim to give our children as much understanding as possible about what is was like to be around at a particular period in history by having practical and experiential lessons where possible. Children are also given the opportunity to display their knowledge at the end of each topic by completing a project that is presented to their class.