Intent 

At Twydall Primary School children will be inspired to develop critical-thinking and decision-making skills through the learning of history as they examine events from the past and discuss their significance and how they have impacted our future. Our curriculum is designed to ignite children’s curiosity about the past through a topic-based approach and hands on experience wherever possible.  

We are determined that alongside historical knowledge there will be a strong focus on the development of specific historical skills.  The teaching of history in our school is intended to equip children to ask preceptive questions about the past, analyse evidence, think critically, appreciate different perspectives and develop informed judgments. 

We believe our children should be taught to understand how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. In addition, our bespoke curriculum provides opportunities for pupils to explore their own identity, for example through local history topics. 

Our history curriculum is intended to help pupils to understand the complexity of people's lives the process of change the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups 

Implementation 

Our history curriculum covers the skills outlined in the national curriculum through broad challenging and inspiring topics.  History is taught within each year group following a set programme. Medium term plans ensure coverage of both the required knowledge and the subject specific skills. Individual sessions are planned to inspire, engage and challenge children in response to their needs. Children are given a wide variety of experiences both in the classroom and out. We encourage school visits and visitors into the school to enable the children to gain first hand experiences to support their learning. Children are supported 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 causes and consequences.  

In Early Years children learn about the past through studying events in their own lives and the lives of their family members, they use talk to sequence and clarify their ideas about events.  High quality stories are used to ensure that children begin to understand things that happened in the more recent and distant past, children are encouraged to talk about their ideas about how objects and people were the same and different in the past. 

During Key stage 1 children will learn about a range of famous people in the past including Florence Nightingale, the Wright Brothers, Samuel Pepys and Neil Armstrong. These are chosen carefully to ensure pupils learn about individuals of both genders from diverse backgrounds. Children are taught how to sequence events in chronological order starting with events that are familiar (the recent royal events) and moving further back in time, for example we study the Great Fire of London and Castles looking in particular at Rochester castle in our local area. 

Children in Key Stage 2 continue to develop chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. At Twydall primary school we study a range of periodic times in history including the Stone Age the Romans the Celts and the Anglicans the Mayans and the Tudors.  Children will be taught to understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts. 

Impact 

History assessment is ongoing to inform teachers with their planning, lesson activities and differentiation. The skills and knowledge progression documents inform future planning and staff of the requirements needed to support our pupils by the end of each key stage. At Twydall our pupils are spoken to regularly to hear their voice, discuss their learning and encourage deeper thinking. Regular monitoring of books and learning walks are carried out in order to capture the impact of the teaching and learning within our school by the subject leader. 

For our history development we are looking forward to a historical day when we will all have the opportunity to dress up in costumes linked to the time period being studied, and explore life during that era.