History at Holy Family Catholic Primary School

Intent

Our intent at Holy Family is that our History curriculum will help pupils to augment their cultural literacy and gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We aim to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past; teaching them to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Through the teaching of History, we endeavour to teach children to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Implementation

History is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. Key knowledge and skills of each topic have been identified and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics throughout each year group across the school. By the end of year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history. They will be able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisation of the Mayan empire.
Cross curricular outcomes in history are specifically planned for, with strong links between the history curriculum and literacy lessons enabling further contextual learning. The local area is also fully utilised to achieve the desired outcomes. Planning is informed by and aligned with the national curriculum. Outcomes of work are monitored to ensure that they reflect a sound understanding of the key identified knowledge. Within our knowledge-rich approach, there is a strong emphasis on people and the community of our local area. School trips provide further relevant and contextual learning.

Impact
Outcomes in books and pupil voice evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of the identified key knowledge and skills. As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives both now and in the future. 

Historical Substantive Concepts at Holy Family 

Substantive Concepts are concepts concerned with the subject matter of history. At Holy Family, these are: social & economic, community & culture, conflict & disaster, hierarchy & powers, religion and exploration & invention. These fundamental, key historical concepts are embedded throughout our curriculum so that each one is planned to be encountered multiple times throughout the pupils' learning journey. For more information, please see our Historical Substantive Concepts Overview below.

Year 6 Debate

After studying two Ancient Greek city states, pupils had to join Team Sparta or Team Athens. Led by a team spokesmen, they had to express and argue in favor of which city citizens should opt to live in - they even discussed how this decision may differ based on whether you were a greek male or female.