At Abbey, we nurture a love of learning. We open windows of opportunity by creating memorable moments. Learning with meaningful relationships supports our children to become valued members of the community. We embed the core subjects within an expansive and challenging curriculum. We develop and nurture young minds, creating memorable moments and events. We promote and celebrate equality and diversity.

Intent

Our children will learn to think and act as historians. Our history curriculum is carefully mapped out so that all our children will be equipped with an understanding of the past that paves the way for their future. Throughout their journey in history, pupils will acquire a breadth of knowledge of places and people and significant events through time. Pupils will be given the opportunity to develop their ability to ask perceptive questions, think critically, analyse evidence, examine arguments, develop judgement, and understand differing perspectives. Pupils will be empowered to be active global citizens: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

• How to talk like a historian is a thread that is woven through the history curriculum, helping our children develop the oracy skills to explore their historical knowledge, based on the following skills:
• Considering multiple perspectives (‘While what they say is true, we could also think about it from…’)
• Corroborating Evidence (‘We know this is true because it is also…’)
• Developing ideas – having ideas around ideas. (I think if they had…things might have turned out differently’)
• Vocabulary and the power of language (‘I think what he’s really trying to say here is…’)

Implementation

History is delivered in a combination of half and whole termly units across the school depending on the year group. Appropria te progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary is ensured by following the Oxford Owl Scheme. The subject is taught weekly for 60 minutes. This learning is recorded in a variety of ways from written work, class discussions, practical activities and photos. There is an emphasis on creating memorable experiences and being creative and engaging practitioners, and lessons follow a structure which includes retrieval quizzes, key vocabulary, independent practice, and questions to encourage discussion. We also endeavor to undertake several historical visits outside of school or workshops per year.

Impact

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils will:

• Children will know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day.
• Children will know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies.
• Children will gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parl iament’ and ‘peasantry’
• Children will understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends.
• Children will understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims.
• Children will gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between shortand long-term timescales.