Intent

At Culgaith School we offer an inspiring and engaging curriculum which is structured to cover clearly all aspects of the National Curriculum. We aim to develop historical skills and concepts which are transferable to whatever period of history is being studied and will equip children for future learning. 

The coverage of recent history in EYFS and KS1 such as ‘How am I making History’ and ‘Adventures through time’ enables children to acquire an understanding of time, events and people in their memory and their parents’ and grandparents’ memories. For EYFS/KS1, we have designed a curriculum that can be covered chronologically in reverse to allow a full opportunity for children to really grasp the difficult concept of the passing of time. 

The intent of our cycles in KS2 is that children can work in chronological order from ancient History such as ‘Ancient Egypt’ and then progress onto more modern aspects of History such as the Tudors. The cycle allows children to repeat and embed this sequence of chronology with a wider selection of ancient History such as ‘Mayans’ and ‘Stone Age’ through to more modern historical events and figures including WW2 and a Study of Wainwright. The repeat in KS2 of chronological order from ancient to modern allows for children to truly develop and embed a sense of time and how civilisations were interconnected. Children start to understand how some historical events occurred concurrently in different locations, e.g. Ancient Egypt and the Stone Age.

At Culgaith school we make clear links to our locality when studying History – for example making use of our proximity to Hadrian’s Wall, Long Meg’s stone circle, Tullie House etc. We intend to inspire pupils and practitioners to develop a love of history and see how it has shaped the world they live in.

Implementation

We have developed a two and a three year rolling-program of topics. Each of these is carefully mapped out to teach, revisit and recap on the key knowledge and skills from the National Curriculum. We use knowledge organisers and key vocabulary for all topics. The start of each topic includes a ‘hook’ or creative engagement and will incorporate an opportunity to share prior knowledge and learning that can be built on. Where possible learning will be linked with other subjects, e.g. English, to allow for a deeper understanding and opportunity to explore the subject further. An example of this would be teaching the text ‘Norman the Norman from Normandy’ whilst teaching the topic ‘Normans’ 

Impact

The impact of our plans is that children at Culgaith School will develop a love of History that they can continue building and develop as life-long learners. The study of History will be prominent and visual throughout school through displays, books etc. Impact can also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment and formative or summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.