History Intent Statement

Having been founded by a charitable trust in 1836, Fawbert and Barnard’s Primary School has a rich history of its own of which the school are very proud and draw on as much as possible. The history curriculum at Fawbert and Barnard’s makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the history of their locality.

Intent

In line with the National Curriculum 2014, and what we want our children to know by the time they leave Fawbert & Barnard’s, we have designed our history curriculum with the intent that our children will:    

• Confidently share what they already know and would like to find out more about in their half-termly topic.
• Know more, remember more and understand more through the implementation of our ‘Big Ideas’ approach.
• Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, which helps to stimulate their curiosity to know more about the past.
• Ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
• Begin to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Implementation

The teaching, learning and sequencing of our history curriculum is as follows:

• The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in reception to have an ‘Understanding of the World; people and communities, the world and technology’ by the end of the academic year.
• In KS1, historical knowledge is focused on the world around the children and their living memory of history. This is to ensure a firm foundation for KS2 history. Some appropriate references to events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally will be made such as the first aeroplane flight in Year 2’s ‘Travel and Transport’ Topic.
• In KS2, our history curriculum is set out within interesting cross-curricular topics. Through our ‘big idea’ approach, children are encouraged to constantly make reference the previous events in time and to refer to prior learning.
• By the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They will be able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Egypt and the Mayans.
• Cross curricular outcomes in history are specifically planned for, with strong links between the history curriculum and English, art and DT enabling further contextual learning. 
• Work is recorded in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, creative writing, annotated sketches, posters, models and re-enactments.

Our progression of skills is set out in order to build and develop the following: 

• Chronological Understanding 

• Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 
• Connection and Historical Links 
• Interpretations of History 
• Historical Enquiry 

Impact

The impact of our work will be reflected in:

• Our pupils’ passion for history and the topics they have learnt about.
• Outcomes in topic and English books will evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge.
• Pupils’ ability to describe their understanding of the past.
• Our pupils will be prepared for the next stage of their education.