History
Intent
At Radcliffe on Trent Infant and Nursery school our History teaching aims to inspire curious and inquisitive learners who strive to find out more by asking where, when, what and why questions. We aim to develop the children’s understanding of the world in which they live and to help them recognise continuity and change. Our learners will have an understanding of chronology and will develop an awareness of key moments in the past. Children will be given opportunities to develop key historical skills and will use a range of evidence to explore the past. Developing a good understanding of history within their own locality is extremely important at our school and we refer to our village history within our topics, making learning relevant to all of our children.
Implementation
At Radcliffe on Trent Infant and Nursery School we have an enquiry-based curriculum which is taught sequentially building upon the children's historical knowledge and understanding. This begins with our youngest learners in our school nursery and we ensure that throughout school, topics are chosen to give our children the opportunity to make links to historical concepts and to retain and revisit this knowledge. We believe teaching should equip children to develop their key historical skills and concepts, enabling children to ask questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement. Additionally, we aim for our curriculum to help pupils understand the complexity of people's lives, the diversity of society and the process of change.
Our topics are carefully chosen due to their relevance and links to our children's own experiences or because they link to times, places and cultures beyond the children's experiences. Additionally, our topics are carefully placed and planned to allow for the revisiting of previous learning and to build on prior knowledge and skills taught. History taught in EYFS will allow our Nursery children to understand their story, their community and will begin to develop their understanding of the past. For our Reception children we will teach carefully selected knowledge of what is of value for our children and we allow for the key concepts of change, continuity, significance and perspective to be developed. In KS1 our children will study significant events such as The First Moon Landing and will discuss how these have affected our lives today. We will also study significant individuals such as Christopher Columbus and Mary Seacole and our rich local history including the legends of Robin Hood and why Radcliffe on Trent has a totem pole.
Every lesson will allow for an aspect of Historical enquiry to be developed including: asking questions, observing, making inferences and using and analysing evidence. This will be achieved through the use of artefacts, sources, eye witness accounts, memories and stories. Additionally, we further our History Curriculum by cross curricular studies and educational off site visits.
Impact
At our school we ensure that our children are equipped with the historical knowledge and skills that will enable them to be ready to continue their learning journey throughout their school lives. We ensure our curriculum is high quality and well sequenced and therefore is planned to demonstrate understanding and promote progression.
We assess children's progress in a range of different ways using assessment for learning strategies and then we track children using the school history assessment spreadsheets. We aim for the impact of the history curriculum to be evident through the children's enjoyment of history lessons and their keenness to find out more about the past, asking thoughtful questions, thinking critically and demonstrating a greater understanding about the world in which they live.