St John XXIII Catholic Primary School

History at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School

Humanities encompasses geography and history. These disciplines share many common themes, concepts and transferable skills, while having their own discrete body of knowledge and skills. Throughout the year, each year group studies a variety of topics to allow our learning to focus on core subject specific knowledge and skills. Links across and between subjects give children a broad base of knowledge, facts, vocabulary, real-life experience and contexts to use for learning.

In Geography, children focus on 5 key areas of geography: location, place, human geography, physical geography, and map skills and fieldwork. In History, children focus on the core skills of chronology and sequencing. They also look at a range of different evidence in order to find out about the past, making links across periods and events in which they’ve studied. Within each topic, lessons follow carefully planned sequences which support children to build on their previous knowledge and skills whilst learning new content. Both history and geography lessons take various forms. Throughout our school there is a balance of practical, hands-on learning, research reading and written recording of knowledge.

The humanities area seeks to awaken a sense of wonder, fire the imagination and inspire learners to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom. At St John’s, we aim to give our children a humanities curriculum which enables them to become confident, creative and independent learners who can explore the use of different knowledge and skills throughout their learning. We seek to broaden children’s real-life experiences both inside and outside of school through educational visits, experience days, exploration and discovery. In the last year, we have worked very hard to design a curriculum which reflects our children’s heritages and expands their horizons. Within lessons, our children acquire a range of knowledge and skills in both history and geography which they can then apply to other subjects and in a variety of situations. Furthermore, it is our aim that through historical and geographical learning, children will become accountable citizens, understanding their role in protecting our world and environment and knowing how they can cause positive change and development as they grow.

Intent

At St John XXIII, Humanities inspires curiosity about the world and encourages children to explore the stories, places and people that shape our lives. Guided by Pope Leo’s Maps of Hope, we support every child on a journey of discovery, helping them to understand their place in the world and their responsibility to others.

Our Humanities curriculum is carefully sequenced so that knowledge and skills build progressively from Early Years to Year 6. Through planned enquiry, children develop chronological understanding, geographical knowledge and the ability to interpret evidence. Key concepts and vocabulary are revisited and deepened over time so that pupils can make meaningful connections across topics and across subjects.

We provide rich opportunities for enquiry, fieldwork, and first-hand experiences that bring learning to life. Children are encouraged to ask questions, analyse sources, and reflect on how the past and present shape the future. Through Humanities, pupils develop a sense of identity, cultural awareness and respect for diversity.

We hold high expectations for all learners. Through inclusive teaching and appropriate challenge, every child is supported to succeed and to develop a love of learning. Our aim is for pupils to leave St John XXIII with a strong understanding of the world, ready to engage confidently with the wider community and continue their learning journey.

Through Humanities, our pupils will:

Communicate with confidence and clarity, using subject-specific vocabulary to explain and debate their ideas.
Journey as resilient learners, exploring enquiry, evidence and interpretation with perseverance and hope.
Recognise their God-given dignity and potential, understanding that every voice and story matters.
Step forward with ambition and purpose, developing a deep understanding of the world and their role within it.

Implementation

At St John XXIII history is taught through investigation and enquiry. Children develop an understanding of how history has had an impact on our lives today both locally, nationally and internationally. Whilst it is important for children to have facts, we wish to encourage independent and critical thinking which will foster an understanding of ‘why’ as well as ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘where’.

Vocabulary is key in all classes across all topics. We want pupils to be good communicators – language will be modelled daily to encourage speaking and listening. Lessons are planned so that there is time for discussion and debate, fostering an environment of enquiry which enables children to revise and justify their opinions as well as encouraging children to ask as well as answer questions about history.

We believe that history should be an interactive subject which strives to ignite a child’s natural curiosity. History lessons will develop pupils God given talents by being creative and allowing their curiosity to flourish.

Each unit being planned includes opportunities for children to investigate, handle artefacts, pictorial evidence, watch historical footage, take part in role play activities, visit relevant sites and museums and where appropriate, experience oral history, engaging with historical characters and ways of life.

Our curriculum provides a rich variety of topics that cover The Stone Age to the first moon landing. All history topics start with an overarching 'Big Question' that the children contribute to answering throughout the unit to see how different events and actions can accumulate to build a deeper understanding of a historical period.

They explore this question using a variety of investigative skills, engaging and becoming more familiar with historical skills such as analysing and debating the reliability of sources, making comparisons between historical periods, devising historically valid questions, drawing conclusions from sources and making links between events.

Underpinning this is an emphasis on children understanding the world around them, their country and their values.

Impact

At St John XXIII Catholic Primary School, we believe that history is an integral part of understanding our place in the world, knowing that we build upon the story of past individuals and civilizations, and that we pass our successes and failures on to future ones. Our aim is to engage and inspire curiosity, while encouraging children to think critically and ask questions. Through our history curriculum we aim to teach children the importance of enquiry, research and analysis; and teach an understanding of the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change and the diversity of societies. Emphasis is placed on investigative learning to build a curiosity and not simply retain facts, but develop skills to enable enquiry and understanding. We believe the study of History makes a substantial contribution to their understanding of all aspects of life, giving children a sense of identity and heritage. Above all we want children to have a wonder and curiosity for the world around them inspired by the enriched and engaging curriculum provided at our school.

We measure the impact of our history curriculum through the following methods:

In Class Feedback

In History, we understand that feedback in linked to progress and has to be timely to make an impact. In class feedback is used to support teacher’s workload, ensure it is as immediate and timely and specific as possible, and leaves the teacher time to focus on individual identified needs. (see our Feedback policy 2020)

Corrective Teaching/Summative Assessment

History is a subject that embraces discussion and reflection. Teachers therefore assess oral contribution in lessons i.e. the confidence and ability of a pupil to express ideas based on historical fact or based upon opinion and perspective. When a pupil has not met the learning objective there is timely support so they are able to continue on the learning journey with their peers. Teachers adapt their planning for the next lesson to ensure there is time to address these misconceptions. It may be addressed in the next lesson, by a Teaching Assistant, in small groups in the lesson or at Booster Clubs. The misconceptions may also be addressed through in class marking, conferencing, and verbal feedback or with the use of mini plenaries.

Pre Teaching/Pre Assessment

All teachers must be aware of the pupil’s prior attainment. The use of knowledge organisers and big questions enables children to use their prior knowledge from the previous academic year to assess what they have learnt. This informs the teachers’ planning and, where possible, the Teaching Assistants support teachers and complete pre-learning activities or activities in lessons will be tailored to address the learning gap. This might be re visiting vocabulary or basic skills needed to access the age related objective.

Use of Big questions and double page spreads:

An overarching big question is used for each topic across the school. This sets a great focus and direction for the topic. Also as s the children answer the question at the beginning of the topic and again at the end, this shows fantastic growth and progress of learning.

Our double page spread at the end of a topic allows the children a very open-ended platform to display their learning. The children love the opportunity to get creative and arty in their assessment piece. Those children that need some more support with this element of learning receive picture prompts to assist them.

Teaching Assistants and Interventions

When we identify need, the Teaching Assistants deliver short, focused, interventions. The interventions are repeated over a week, either, daily or a specified number of times per week. The interventions are specific to the need and they are given until the misconceptions are addressed or the gap in learning is reduced.

Same day interventions are also used to pick up on misconceptions from the current days teaching and learning.

Partnership

Teachers engage parents through September welcome meetings. Fortnightly newsletters and Parent Consultation Days ensure an effective partnership to ensure children meet their age related expectations as well as sharing their children’s developing knowledge.

Use of Question slide

This idea was developed to promote the children’s natural wonder and curiosity around History. The children get an opportunity to raise questions they have around their topic (no matter how specific or broad). Then linking in with their Computing subject they will research their questions across the topic. This practise also hugely informs teachers of the interests the children have. Therefore this can inform teacher planning.

School reports

School reports are issued at the end of the school year. All subjects, including History, are marked as Working towards National Expectations, Meeting National Expectations or Exceeding National Expectations. We also give a grade for the children’s effort in History.