Intent: What and why do the children learn?

We believe that our children should learn about significant events and people in History so that they can develop an enquiring and questioning mind. Through following the National Curriculum and the Pilgrim Progress assessment system, St Mark's will develop a sense of identity and place, give children the opportunity to reflect on their school, community and local area and encourage all our children to be historians who see how the past has impacted on their lives. Our curriculum develops a sense of identity and place - pupils leave with sense of cultural understanding and have learnt about significant events and people in history. 

Implementation: How do we teach it? 

Teachers plan carefully to make sure that the sequence of teaching and learning is relevant to our pupils. Our curriculum builds chronological understanding and an appreciation of how historical events impact our lives today.  

We use the National Curriculum and our self-developed ‘Pilgrim Progress’ assessment procedures to provide support for staff and pupils to monitor their progress against the gaining of key skills and knowledge. This important spine allows us to manage our split classes and plan a clear cycle of topics and learning that begins with an individual child's starting point. The foundation stones to a successful education lie in the acquisition of basic skills and knowledge.

The key concepts include:

• Understanding chronology 

• Building an overview

• Investigating and interpreting 

• Communicating historically

Where appropriate we use historical artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past. We aim to give our children as much understanding as possible about what is was like to be around at a  particular period in history by having practical and experiential lessons where possible.

The curriculum we create reflects current historical events and celebrations where we can.

Impact: How does it benefit our children?

Outcomes in history evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate children's acquisition of identified key knowledge relating to each of of the identified national curriculum strands.

 In EYFS, the children at St Mark's learn to talk about themselves and how they have changed over time. Through studying families they start to understand these changes and develop the skills associated with enquiry. 

The Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 Curriculum builds on these concepts and extends them using different contexts. 

 Impact of the curriculum is measured by:

•  Assessing children's understanding of the unit's knowledge and any key vocabulary.
• Assessment of pupils discussions about their learning.
• Interviews with pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation staff meetings where pupils books re scrutinized and colleagues can give a deeper explanation of context.