Curriculum Lead:
Intent:
At Bridge Learning Campus we are passionate about developing knowledgeable historians who have a secure understanding of chronology and can explain key significant periods and events in British and world history. Our history curriculum has been planned to empower children to understand how Bristol docks acted as a conduit for trade, migration and exploration from Roman times to the present day. Our historians can use their knowledge to interrogate a variety of sources, evidence and artefacts to investigate history for themselves.
Implementation:
History in EYFS and KS1 is taught within our enquiry curriculum, often alongside geography and DT, and sometimes science. Where history is the ‘lead subject’ within an enquiry, most lessons within that enquiry will have a history objective. However, the enquiry may also include linked lessons from the other enquiry subjects (geography, DT or Science) to provide context, or to allow children to make links between the knowledge learnt across several subjects.
In KS2, our History curriculum, which utilises the work of Opening Worlds in Key Stage 2, is taught as an individual subject in every half-term. The studies in Key Stage 2 have been mapped out by Opening Worlds in advance for each of the year groups from 3-6, working as individual years to cover the National Curriculum objectives.
Our History lessons are planned around areas of study that match the curriculum, work for our pupils and consider their enjoyment and prior experiences. We cover local, national and worldwide history through these studies.
Our planning process sees teachers working collaboratively to plan the following:
- The planning out of stories. The Opening Worlds curriculum is delivered very strongly through confident and fascinating storytelling. Lessons can begin or end with a story to help the children understand the true facts of the history they are learning, leaving misconceptions behind.
- A sequence of lessons which are carefully planned, with progression, through historical skills. It is also used to build a chronological progression through the period with key dates, people and places added to lessons.
- Quizzing is planned in at the end of every term to ensure that the knowledge has been understood.
- Consistent questioning that revisits the learning from the lesson, encouraging full sentence answers.
- Challenges added with key questions posed to encourage enquiry for pupils.
Lessons are planned using the long-term planning, allowing teachers to see the progression running through year groups so that knowledge can be built upon. Within Key Stage 1, this has been planned out through our enquiries, allowing the lessons to progress seamlessly into the Key Stage 2 curriculum designed by Opening Worlds.
The Opening Worlds curriculum understands the importance of explicit vocabulary teaching and incorporates it into every lesson. Each unit in Key Stage 2 is linked to a textbook and this is used alongside the storytelling of the teacher to build the children’s understanding within context. An example of this might be: words which are covered in Year 3 are used again in Year 4, such as ruler or government. They are then able to move onto learning vocabulary such as consul, senate and senator within the Year 4 Romans unit. This constant build of rich vocabulary sees our children develop a greater understanding of not only the topics but also what they are reading within specific lessons and across the wider curriculum.
As the pupils move through school, they learn more and piece together the jigsaw of time that is history, to aid this each class has a timeline within the room. When a new period of time is taught, this is added to the timeline, allowing pupils to not only build a picture of time, but also allowing them to see how it fits in comparison to the current day. This timeline transfers with each year group as they move through the school so they are adding to their own journey through time. In Key Stage 1, we do not refer to times as BC or AD instead referring to this as time beyond living memory and within living memory. Then once pupils move into Key Stage 2 they are taught about BC and AD and how they relate to the previous terms they learnt.
Impact:
Our History curriculum is monitored by our History lead, with regular opportunities for staff feedback, checks of National Curriculum coverage, pupil voice and celebrating the success and highlighting our next steps used. We also work alongside the Opening Worlds team and other schools within the Shaw Education Trust to ensure that staff have the most up to date CPD opportunities. This allows us to stay up to date with any changes to the History curriculum.
The impact of our History curriculum can be seen through: the outcomes of pupils, formative assessment, the work that they produce within their books, cross-curricular work that is completed and also through pupil voice when we discuss the timelines used in class and their understanding of chronology within History.
We expect that our pupils will leave school at the end of Year 6 from Bridge Learning Campus with the following:
- A secure understanding of chronology across history seeing how they fit within this.
- A secure understanding of local history, national history and worldwide history, with links being able to be made between all three.
- A deeper understanding of how periods, people and places in history have affected this period, this country and the area within which they live.
- To be inquisitive learners who always want to learn more about themes that interest them. In particular being able to question themselves how things have changed, what caused them to change and the significance this has had throughout history.
- Year 2 – What could my school be made of?
- Year 2 – What did Brunel do for Great Britain?
Opening Worlds Curriculum
Progression
Year 3
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Ancient Egypt | Cradles of Civilisation | The Indus Valley | Persia and Greece | Ancient Greece | Alexander the Great |
Year 4
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
Roman Republic | The Roman Empire | Roman Britain | Christianity in three empires | Arabia and early Islam | Cordoba: city of light |
Year 5
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
The round city: Baghdad | Anglo-Saxon Britain | Vikings 1 – Lady of the Mercians | Norse culture | Vikings 2: Changing rulers, changing worlds | Local History Guidance |
Year 6
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 | Spring 1 | Spring 2 | Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
The Maya | Ethiopia and Benin | Cities in time 1 This Manchester man | Era of the Second World War  |
History Knowledge Organisers
History Enquiry Displays
