‘A person without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots’. Marcus Garvey
At St Benedict’s, we believe a high-quality History education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. History helps pupils 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. Children at St Benedict’s are exposed and immersed in rich historical texts that deepen their knowledge and understanding of what they are learning. We learn about the history of our local community such as the history of the steel works this is incorporated into our long term planning.
Our history curriculum draws upon prior learning, wherever the content is taught. For example, in the EYFS, pupils may learn about the past and present through daily activities, exploring through change, and understanding more about the lives of others through books and visitors as well as their own experiences. These experiences are drawn upon and used to position new learning in KS1.
The structure is built around the principles of advancing cumulative knowledge, chronology, change through cause and effect, as well as making connections within and throughout periods of time studied.
The history curriculum is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’. The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks. This powerful interrelationship between structure and research-led practice is designed to increase substantive knowledge and accelerate learning within and between study modules. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning. The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with significant periods of time, people, places and events.
The history curriculum strategically incorporates a range of modules that revisit, elaborate and sophisticate key concepts, events, people and places.
A guiding principle of the history curriculum, is that pupils become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever broadening and coherent mental timeline. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented understanding of the past. Specific and associated historical vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Y1 to Y6. High frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught alongside and help make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3). Each learning module in history has a vocabulary module with teacher guidance, tasks and resources.
Enrichment
To further enhance our History curriculum we offer:
- Each class will be given the opportunity for out of school visits and experiences that complement their current learning e.g. York, Dorman Museum, Duncombe Park and Kirkleatham
- Artefacts are brought into school from local museums to enrich our curriculum
- Celebrate key dates such as; Remembrance Day, St Benedict’s Feast day
- Studies of our local area such as Zetland life boat
- Local visitors to talk about the history of the local area
Useful Information
