History

At Horbury Primary Academy, we are committed to stimulating our children’s historical curiosity and providing them with the very best learning opportunities in the subject, both through class based lessons and additional learning opportunities. As a result of this, we aim to inspire our pupil’s to become enthralled in History and understand why it is important. It is our aim to develop the children’s understanding of a range of historical periods and how they fit in chronologically whilst also providing the children with key historical facts (sticky knowledge) linked to Britain and the world we live in. We believe that through high quality history lessons, we can provide children with an in-depth understanding of how the world we live in has been shaped by the past. Therefore, we have a desire for our children to understand and answer questions based on the significance of past events and people, including black history and contrasting cultures to that of their own, and how they have shaped and will continue to shape our lives.

When children leave Horbury Primary Academy, we aim for our children to have developed:

• a passion for exploring history and the impact that it has on modern Britain and the world.
• an excellent knowledge and understanding of people from different cultures, religions and historical periods, who have faced and overcome difficulties, and played significant roles in history.
• an understanding of key people and events and how they have shaped modern society.
• a strong understanding of chronology and how people and events fit into a timeline.
• an understanding of how historical evidence has been gathered in order for us to learn about the past.
• a range of historical skills linked to enquiry, examination and analysis of evidence and the ability to communicate findings confidently in order to answer questions.
• the ability to communicate their findings and challenge their own and others’ views using evidence from a range of sources.

In order to succeed in the delivery of a vibrant and engaging historical curriculum, we will implement a thorough and consistent approach across school that has been carefully sequenced and planned with consideration to the National Curriculum and our school’s locality. Our learning will lead the children on a journey through history, which reflects the outcomes outlined within the National Curriculum. We aim to build upon the children’s prior learning and develop a progressive understanding of common themes such as invasion, society (democracy) and the lives of children. Children’s’ ability to apply their knowledge and understanding will be achieved through the use of overarching enquiry questions for each unit of work; each lesson will then have individual enquiry questions feeding into the overarching enquiry question. As a result, pupils will be encouraged to draw upon their historical skills, knowledge and understanding in order to answer these questions which will develop their ability to work as historians and grasping a deeper understanding of what they are learning.

Class teachers will be expected to:

• have a clear understanding of the key assessment criteria, sticky knowledge and historical vocabulary that the children will retain linked to each historical learning context
• use POLO documents to carefully plan a cycle of lessons that build upon previous skills and knowledge and facilitate for progression within the subject
• use enquiry based questions to encourage children to apply their learning
• extend learning opportunities through school trips, workshops and visitors
• Implement knowledge mats to reinforce key historical vocabulary and sticky knowledge facts
• develop links between history and the local community where appropriate
• encourage pupils to draw links with between current and prior learning
• support and promote British values and political awareness
• give children opportunities to examine both primary and secondary sources of evidence
• provide opportunities for low stakes quizzes in order to reinforce sticky knowledge
• provide differentiated learning opportunities that extend all pupils understand of history and provide sufficient challenge
• promote History through meaningful working walls within the classroom and around school.