Asquith Primary- History Overview

At Asquith Primary School, our engaging, enquiry-led history curriculum inspires our children to develop a fascination for and understanding of the past.Pupils are encouraged to think of themselves as ‘history detectives’, using primary and secondary sources of information to draw conclusions about life in the past – both in Britain and abroad – helping them to understand the world today. Our curriculum is underpinned by 5 golden threads: High aspirations for all, Fostering resilience, Embedding key skills, Respecting diversity and Creating global citizens- with the intent that all our children have the opportunity to grow and succeed as historians.

Intent

Morley is a town steeped in History and our community values its rich past. Our history curriculum equips children with detailed knowledge of local and world history and an understanding of how history shapes future events. To ensure that pupils develop a secure sequential knowledge, our history curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the knowledge, skills and vocabulary to be taught in a coherent way. This begins in EYFS with the children understanding the concept of past and present through child-initiated and adult-led learning. Once children begin in KS1, and throughout KS2, historical learning is based around four key concepts: Society and Community, Exploration and Invasion, Power and Conflict and Disaster. These concepts are mapped out to ensure that pupils build on secure prior learning within each unit. When covering each of these concepts, the content is organised by year group through a long-term plan. History is delivered through subject-specific teaching organised into blocks. Meaningful links with other subjects are purposefully made to strengthen connections and allow deeper exploration and understanding for pupils. 

We aim to:

• Enable children develop their chronological understanding through carefully sequenced units of work which give them opportunities to explore similarities and differences between different time periods.
• Encourage children to think critically, using a range of artefacts and historical sources to pose and answer questions about the past.
• Study key aspects of world History which help pupils to gain a sense of their own identity while developing their understanding of the contributions made by the diverse cultures of the wider world.
• Develop aspirations through the study of other specialists from a diverse range of backgrounds and places in history, enabling children to explore history within the local area, as well as developing an understanding of the ever-changing world we live in.
• Help children to understand how past events have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• Help children to 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; achievements and follies of mankind.
• Enable children to gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
• Ensure children understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference, and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
• Equip children with the understanding of the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
•  Support children in gaining a 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 short- and long-term timescales.

Implementation

History at Asquith Primary School  is taught in block units throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning.  The concepts, historical knowledge and historical skills have been mapped to ensure that pupils following our sequence of learning have ample opportunity to make progress in history by knowing and remembering more historical content. Key knowledge and skills in each area of learning are mapped across the key stages, ensuring that knowledge builds progressively and that children develop skills systematically. Units of learning have been chosen to build sequentially, increasing knowledge of location and sense of place.  

The focus on ensuring that the children grow to succeed is implemented by:

• Developing the understanding of the key knowledge within each unit and across each year group. This is delivered through questions about theme topics with the four main areas of History threaded throughout: Society and Community, Exploration and Invasion, Power and Conflict and Disaster. 
• Applying and developing key historical skills through all units of learning, underpinned by six secondary concepts: chronology, evidence and interpretation, cause and consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference and historical significance. 
• Using secondary sources maps, artefacts, photographs, images. Experiential learning drama is also a feature in many of the historical units.
• Developing understanding of pupils’ own and locations history and how key historical events have shaped life today and how they continue to shape lives of the future.
• Giving pupils the opportunity to research people who have had a significant impact on historical significance from a range of diverse backgrounds, exploring both the positive and negative impacts of such events or movements.

Impact

As children progress throughout the school, they will develop a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their local history and its place within the wider world’s historic context as well . Children begin to think like historians and develop their skills including historical enquiry. There is a strong emphasis on developing children’s other skills such as understanding of chronology, interpretations of evidence, changes within a time and across time periods and cause and consequence. The History units taught help children appreciate their own identity and the challenges in their time and help them understand the process of change over time and significant developments. We seek to inspire in children a curiosity and fascination about the world, its people and its history which will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Places to Visit

Oakwell Hall (free of charge) https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/museums-and-galleries/oakwell-hall.aspx

Bolhttps://www.historyforkids.net/ling Hall https://bradfordmuseums.org/bolling-hall-museum-library

Cartwright Hall https://bradfordmuseums.org/cartwright-hall-art-gallery/

Bradford Industrial Museum https://bradfordmuseums.org/bradford-industrial-museum/

Leeds Museums- https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/