History

History 

Intent

We are all historians. Our engaging enquiry-led history curriculum aims to inspire our children to develop a fascination for and understanding of the past. We have designed a curriculum that is bespoke to the children in our school and their needs. On school entry, our pupils’ baseline in ‘Understanding of the World’ is often low which is why at Pentland we place great emphasis on each child learning about their own personal history and changes in living memory as a starting point. All pupils are encouraged to think of themselves as ‘history detectives’ as they learn about significant people, events, and places.

Pentland’s history curriculum recognises and celebrates our pupils' heritage and their locality and is supported by the Heritage Schools Programme run by Historic England. We are committed to providing an exciting and positive learning environment in which all children are given the opportunity to learn how history has influenced many aspects of our culture, beliefs, routines and developments of today and how these also impact on the future.

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement the National Curriculum as well as incorporating cross-curricular Cornerstone’s topics to create a curriculum which is personalised to Pentland. History is delivered by class teachers in a variety of ways - often it is taught as a discrete subject but sometimes alongside others as part of a theme and occasionally serves to drive the literacy lessons.

Our history curriculum at Pentland encourages children to think, examine and enquire like historians. We inspire pupils’ curiosity and fascination about the past, through a variety of exciting first-hand experiences, trips and visitors which bring their learning to life. These experiences and opportunities enable children to ask questions, think critically and develop their own opinions and judgement. Children are also given opportunities to explore artefacts and sources to extend their knowledge of local history, Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We also celebrate significant nationwide events as a school community.

We aim to promote continuity throughout school and the curriculum aims to build upon chronological knowledge and consolidate pupils’ understanding and vocabulary. All pupils are supported to develop their levels of literacy, especially oracy, by communicating their knowledge and skills.

Impact

The impact of our history curriculum is that our pupils will have a life-long appreciation and enjoyment of history. Through developing historical questioning and enquiry skills they will feel confident enough to explore changes in the past and begin to understand ways in which they are represented. The children will begin to recognise and discuss the similarities and differences in chronological frameworks and will have developed the vocabulary needed to describe these. Outcomes in written work and ‘pupil voice’ will evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s attainment of identified key knowledge. The overall aim is that the curriculum will enrich and impact the children’s lives and learning now and in the future, enabling them to be an active citizen in their community.

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