"The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future."

Theodore Roosevelt

Subject Overview

At Rockmount, the subject of History is taught through a half-termly topic focusing on the knowledge and skills from the National Curriculum. The aim is to provide every child with coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Our teaching of History is led by the desire to educate the children on the complexities of peoples lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of time. This links directly and encompasses all our British Values.

In history, we bring the curriculum to life through visits and historical interpreters who visit school with artefacts. We use our local surroundings to ensure that the children who attend our school, regardless of where they live, understand the richness of history, which runs through the community.

Intent

Our aim at Rockmount Primary School is to encourage pupils to develop an appreciation and understanding of the past, evaluating a range of primary and secondary sources. Our children will also be able to explain clearly how these sources give us an insight about how people around the world used to live and how these interpretations may differ. Children will be taught to make links between these areas of learning, with the aim of developing engaged, motivated and curious learners who can reflect on the past and make meaningful links to the present day. Our History curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum.

Implementation

• Topics are blocked to allow children to focus on developing their knowledge and skills, studying each topic in depth.
• We have developed a progression of skills with each year group, which enables pupils to build on and develop their skills each year.
• In KS2, UK history is taught chronologically to allow children to confidently place each time period. This allows pupils to consistently build on previous knowledge and learning by placing previously taught History topics on a timeline.
• In order to support children in their ability to know more and remember more, there are regular opportunities to review the learning that has taken place in previous topics as well as previous lessons.
• At the start of each topic children will review previous learning and will have the opportunity to share what they already know about a current topic.
• Children are given a knowledge organiser at the start of each topic which details some key information, dates and vocabulary. This is not used as part of an assessment, but to support children with their acquisition of knowledge and is used as a reference document.
• Children are given opportunities, where possible, to study artefacts leading to enquiry, investigation, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and presentation.
• We plan for effective use of educational visits and visitors, to enrich and enhance the pupil’s learning experience and the History curriculum. These include visits to the local Horniman Museum where children get to handle artefacts and explore the museum displays and visits to Crystal Palace.
• Teachers use highly effective Assessment for Learning at different points in each lesson to ensure misconceptions are highlighted and addressed.
• Through using a range of assessment tools, differentiation is facilitated by teachers, to ensure that each pupil can access the History curriculum.
• Pupils are regularly given the opportunity for Self or Peer Assessment, which will then be used to inform planning, preparation, differentiation and address misconceptions within that lesson, or for the next lesson.
• Cross-curricular links are planned for, with other subjects such as Maths, Writing and Computing.
• Educational, immersive displays that answer key questions help to create a rich learning environment for each History focus.

Impact

Children will develop a detailed knowledge of the past and how it has impacted modern life. Outcomes in folders and literacy books, evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. During lessons, children are engaged and motivated to learn, to develop their understanding further. They learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.

Golden Threads

Victorian Day

Children in Year 6 were transported back to the late 1880’s for ‘Victorian Day’. The children experienced everyday life in Victorian England, and they dressed up in fantastic outfits to mark the occasion. We also received a visit from an excellent theatre group who worked with the children to tell the story of Victorian times through drama.

West Norwood Cemetery Visit

To learn more about what life was like in our local area during the Victorian era, children in Year 6 also visited West Norwood Cemetery. The cemetery is home to famous Victorian graves such as those of Isabella Beeton and Sir Henry Tate. The children really enjoyed the visit, and they were able to use their historical reasoning skills to provide explanations for patterns and trends in birth and death rates from the period.

Mary Seacole Workshop

Children in Year 1 were excited to invite ‘Mary Seacole’ to our school to enlighten them about her life and her significant role in the Crimean War. The workshop helped children work towards their history objective, which involves learning about the lives of remarkable individuals from the past who made significant contributions on both national and international fronts. Children learnt more about the key events of Mary’s life through storytelling, song and drama. They especially loved creating their own medicine from herbs and spices, which they used to treat one another’s ‘injuries’.

To put their new nursing skills to the test, the children used our outdoor space to create potions to cure a range of illnesses.