History
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At Alderman’s Green, our history curriculum has been designed and constructed to ignite curiosity and fascination of the subject. It enables our children to be enriched with both procedural and declarative knowledge alongside developing skills in each topic. We have planned a curriculum that is in historical chronological order. The powerful knowledge and skills that our pupils will acquire will ensure that they have cultural capital and become educated citizens of the world. Our history curriculum allows our pupils to become competent within a wide range of skills and to gain and deepen their knowledge and understanding of historical concepts on a local level, tailored to our community and learning about and taking pride in Coventry’s heritage. This forms the key foundation of our curriculum as we want children to have pride and knowledge within themselves and the rich history of Coventry which then leads them onto discovering about history at a national and international level.
Pupils are taught to recount facts from famous events and explore the character, nature and actions of key figures in history. In KS1, pupils compare their own lives to those of their family and consider similarities and differences. They place key events in chronological order and begin to consider the different ways in which the past is presented. In KS2, pupils use timelines to chart chronology and explore reasons for events and changes. They compare the past with the present day and consider how different views of the past are formed. They gather and present evidence and link learning in drama, art and English to bring history learning to life. As a school, we intend for history to fire our pupils’ imaginations, transport them to times gone by and enable them to investigate the many and varied interpretations of local, national and world history.
To ensure our pupils receive a high quality history education, the Autumn term is dedicated to the teaching of History. Each year group will learn about a topic in detail and units are in chronological order from Years 1-6 to aid knowledge and learning. Forming a foundation to history in early years, this is then built upon throughout each year to ensure they have an in-depth and secure knowledge and understanding of history by the time they reach the end of Key Stage 2, resulting in acquisition of cultural capital and becoming worldly, educated citizens of the world. Our progressive approach adheres to both the national curriculum as well as reflecting the needs of our children. As part of our history curriculum, children develop rich historical knowledge about their own locality and where they live which deepens throughout KS1 and into KS2. We build upon this to establish not only a rich understanding of local history but appreciate and deepen understanding of national and international history. By incorporating key historical concepts in each year group, we are able to broaden children’s history knowledge and understanding. We have key historical concepts that run through each unit and are built upon each year. As a school, we have a consistent approach incorporating the key concepts and use visual symbols to aid our children's learning:
To aid curiosity, we have developed a curriculum which encourages children to not only question what they have learnt but question how it impacts them and their lives. We use a ‘Big Question’ for each topic to encourage children to want to explore, investigate and discover. We believe by posing questions, this develops their historical enquiry by turning their learning into a process of investigation alongside learning the key facts. We start topics with a ‘wow’ launch to hook the children in and develop their feelings towards their learning. This excites pupils and promotes enthusiasm to learn. During the planning of each topic, a trip or a visitor will be incorporated to provide our pupils with real life experiences and also encourage outdoor lessons and activities. This also develops powerful knowledge to ensure our children have cultural capital and will create fun, exciting, memorable learning experiences which will develop the key knowledge as part of the learning sequence. Through this, we will see children be able to confidently articulate their learning and make links across their understanding of key events throughout History.
History Curriculum Policy
Trips and Enrichment
At Alderman's Green Primary School, during the History focus term we plan exciting learning enrichment opportunities across all the school years. Our trips range from a Dinosaur visit for Year 1, visiting Warwick Castle in Year 2, having an Egyptian Workshop in Year 3, visiting Bosworth Battlefield in Year 4, visiting Hampton Court Palace in London for Year 5's topic on the Tudors and exploring Coventry's history during World War 2 for our Year 6's. Trips are carefully planned to enhance and build on learning, ensuring that they are placed carefully within the sequence of learning.
