Vision

At St Bart’s, we want to inspire our students through our history curriculum and show our pupils that history has had a direct impact on the way they live their lives today. We want our pupils to understand that history is not just the study of the past, but the study of the present. Further to this, our vision for history is that all of our pupils and their diverse heritage are represented and celebrated through our curriculum. We intend to promote the cultural capital of history to inspire our students and give them aspirations beyond our school. We do this through a range of visits, visitors, fieldwork and first-hand experiences.

Intent

In school, our wider aim across all subjects, is that learning is meaningful, memorable and relevant to the life experiences of our students. We have therefore carefully tailored our history subjects to fit the wide diversity of our pupils and provide them with learning opportunities we feel is meaningful to them. Throughout our topics, we have carefully identified and selected the most valuable body of substantive concepts (or golden threads) for pupils to understand, learn, and most importantly, re-visit as our curriculum progresses through our year groups. These golden threads, that weave their way through our curriculum are:

  1. Civilisation
  2. Conflict/Invasion
  3. Empire and power
  4. Monarchy 
  5. Trade
  6. Governance
  7. Immigration and Settlement

We want our pupils to be active and conscious learners and have therefore handpicked disciplinary concepts to teach that allow children to better questioning information, compare the past and present and critically think about sources they read, and are presented with, as they progress in their learning journey at St Bart’s. Our disciplinary concepts are the historical lens at which we look through a topic. They are repeated throughout year groups and topics so pupils become aware of the skills needed to be a good historian. Our disciplinary concepts are:

  1. Significance/Impact- UKS2
  2. Cause/Consequence- LKS2
  3. Continuity/Change
  4. Similarity/Difference
  5. Sources and Evidence (Interpretation)

We encourage children to use historically accurate vocabulary throughout their topics. Some vocabulary is subject specific, however other vocabulary (linked to our golden threads) are rehearsed, repeated or meanings challenged and changed as pupils learn more about the world and its past. Throughout school, we use cross-curricular links to exploit opportunities for breath of knowledge and communication of historical learning. 

Implementation

Our curriculum is informed by the national curriculum. We use a breadth and depth approach to our history curriculum. We believe children need opportunities to develop a long arc of chronology, yet also be able to complete depth approaches into specific periods of history. 

Our curriculum offers a range of exciting topics, tailored to the diverse nature of our school community.  In KS1, children think about 'time' and what it means to them. They think about changes within living memory and compare to experiences of their parents/grandparents. Futhermore, pupils in KS1 learn about some memorable events, people and places in national history and their own locality. 

In KS2, children study a range of time periods as detailed in the NC. We have hand-chosen topics that lend themselves to the history of our children and their heritage, the history of our local area and those that build upon our children’s existing substantive knowledge. 

We believe this exposes pupils to the common themes and vocabulary of certain topics and allow them to make direct comparisons between different periods and societies. All our topics have an overarching key ‘enquiry’ question to answer at the end of the topic. Each lesson is designed to contribute the children’s understanding and knowledge surrounding this question, and poses auxiliary questions that are key formative assessment goals for our teaching staff.

How do we implement History at St Bart’s?

  • Enquiry-led learning
  • Enrichment opportunities such as trips, visitors, artefacts and workshops (from Leeds City Museum).
  • CPD opportunities for staff with the Leeds Museum membership.
  • Cross-curricular links to other subjects to broaden our understanding.
  • Communication of our learning in a cross-curricular manner to bring our learning together

Impact

We use a range of strategies to assess what skills and knowledge the children have attained each term including the following:

  • Book looks
  • Pupil Voice 
  • Regular feedback from subject leaders
  • Regular formative feedback for children in lessons
  • Post assessments at the end of each topic completed by children
  • Sticky knowledge statements linked to knowledge, golden threads and disciplinary concepts

Curriculum - History - Key Documents


Curriculum - History - Useful Links

BBC Bitesize - Primary History

BBC Bitesize - Significant British People

Ducksters - History for Kids

History Games

History Net

This Day in History


Curriculum - History - Vikings

This week, year 5 and year 6 have worked in groups to produce a presentation to inform others about Viking Life. They worked in circular groups focusing on the oracy strand: social and emotional, specifically working with others. They also used the cognitive strand of summary in their presentations. 

Curriculum - History - Sir William Petty Visit

Year 2 had a visit from Sir William Petty all the way from 1666. He came and told us all about the Great Fire of London. We really enjoyed pretending we were a London street that set on fire and creating a bucket chain to try and put out the fire. The children loved taking part in experiments pretending to be houses, discovering how the fire spread so quickly. They also learnt how the fire was put out with the help of gun powder, the king’s men and lots of effort by the people of London. The children had a fantastic day and learnt lots in the process. 

 

Curriculum - History - Artefacts from the Stone Age

In history this week we were looking at artefacts from the Stone Age. We predicted what some objects excavated from Star Carr might have been used for. We were also very lucky as we got to handle and have a close up look at Stone Age artefacts from Leeds Museum. 

 

Curriculum - History - Roman Britains & Anglo Saxons

Class 13 gathering information on Roman Britains and Anglo Saxons in history this week.

 

Curriculum - History - The Stone Age

Year 3 and year 4 have had a great first lesson about the Stone Age. First of all, we went to the timeline on the stairs to find out how long ago the Stone Age was, which other periods of history overlap with it (Egyptians and Greeks), and where it fits into the topics we've already covered. Then, we speculated about how we know anything at all about the Stone Age when it is prehistoric, which we discovered meant before things were written down. We then discussed what archaeologists do. After that, we became archaeologists ourselves when we dissected Stone Age 'poo'. We discovered what people ate in the Stone Age, including berries, seeds and raw vegetables. We also discovered that everything they ate was raw and that they didn't cook anything - including meat!

 

Curriculum - History - The Great Fire of London

We have really enjoyed beginning our new topic in class 6. In history, we have learnt about the events of the Great Fire of London and created a timeline to show what happened over the week.

 

Curriculum - History - Skipton Castle Trip (Class 5)

Class five had a great time at Skipton Castle. We loved walking around a real castle and identifying all the original features. 

 

Curriculum - History - Skipton Castle Trip (Class 7)

Class 7 went to Skipton Castle on Monday. They braved the cold to visit the dark depths of the creepy dungeon, learnt about the family who owned the castle and the men who built it. They learnt about the defences of the castle, the moat, the drawbridge, the portcullis, the thickness of the walls and the arrow slits. They learnt about the kitchen, who cooked and what sort of food was eaten, going to the toilet and which hand should be used for what. They learnt about where the lord and lady slept, and acted out the slaves routine of tightening the ropes of the bed and putting blood under the bed for the bed bugs, which is where the phrase; good-night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite comes from. They pretended to be archers dipping their arrows in rotten buckets before firing to injure the enemy. We all had an amazing day and learnt a lot. 

 

Curriculum - History - Remembrance Day Activities

On Friday, we had a day dedicated to Remembrance day. We discussed what it is and why we celebrate it and the importance of it too. The children enjoyed taking part in Poppy related activities, including making their own poppy biscuits.

 

Curriculum - History - Skipton Castle Trip (Class 6)

Year 2 - Class 6 had a fantastic day at Skipton Castle! It was great to have a guided tour around the castle; we really impressed our guide with our castle knowledge! We also had time to sketch different parts of the castle. We can't wait for our next school trip!

 

Curriculum - History - Remembrance Day Art

Class 7 have been thinking about Remembrance Day, we have discussed what it means to us, what it means to our families and other families. We have watched videos and created poems and art work to support this.  

 

Curriculum - History - Remembrance Day Poppies

We have been thinking about Remembrance in class 6. We talked about peace and what we do to feel peaceful. We created a poppy collage to go alongside our writing.

 

Curriculum - History - Remembrance Day Pictures

Today in class 9 we learned about Remembrance and why we wear poppies. We created these brilliant silhouette pictures.

 

Curriculum - History - Remembrance Day

Well done class 17 for some lovely prayers for Remembrance Day this weekend.

 

Curriculum - History - Floella Benjamin

Class 5 have enjoyed learning about Floella Benjamin and the amazing work she has done.

 

Curriculum - History - Kings and Queens

Year 2 and class 7 took part in a Kings and Queens day. The children dressed up as kings, queens, knights, lords and princesses. They made and decorated crowns, designed and decorated shields and some children even made swords and fans to finish off their outfits. They built castles in groups from different building materials, to see which teams castle could be the largest, strongest or craziest. The children then learnt about a royal banquet and the type of food that would be eaten in medieval times, from pigeon pie to wild boar and roasted deer. They created a menu and drew their desired meal on a scroll. Delicious! The children had a fantastic day and really enjoyed themselves.  

 

Curriculum - History - Norman Castles

In class 6, we have been learning all about Norman castles. We have explored the two types of castles - motte-and-bailey and stone keep and today we have discussed who lives and works in a castle. We learnt all about the different jobs in a castle and thought about what job we would like if we lived in the Norman period. We completed a job application for the job we thought we'd be best at!

 

Curriculum - History - Author Visit

Year 5 had a great time in the library with the guest author Kate Pankhurst who talked about how she has developed her books all about great women from history who changed the world. 

 

Curriculum - History - Victorian Housing

In our history lesson this week we have been finding out about Victorian housing and the differences between rich and poor houses. The children were very surprised by the conditions of the poor houses and especially the fact that they didn’t have toilets.


 

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