History

Our Vision: ‘Learning from the past to guide our future’ 

Intent- What does History look like at Sandcross? 

At Sandcross we aim to offer a high-quality history education that will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups. It also helps children gain a sense of their own identity within a social, political, cultural and economic background.

Our History curriculum is designed to challenge, develop and nurture the “Whole Child‟ with a mission of “Inspiring Lifelong Success‟.

Implementation - So, how are we going to deliver this? 

Our historians will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom where appropriate to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding. Understanding key concepts within History, such as significance and causation and consequence, unlock the door for students to be able to ask leading questions, analyse information and convey their views in a methodical and structured way.  

These skills are honed and developed progressively through the curriculum to create historians confident in communicating their views, both in writing and orally.  Each topic is framed around a challenging historical question which is linked to our school drivers. Lessons mirror this, with key questions forming the basis for each lesson enquiry. This will ensure students access and apply high level vocabulary with increasing rigour over their time in history classrooms.

Impact - What difference is this curriculum making to our children? 

Outcomes in topic and literacy books, evidence a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge. Children review the agreed successes at the end of every session and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with support from their teachers. Children are also asked what they have learned comparative to their starting points at the end of every topic.

Learning will be centred round one main question, which is underpinned by the drivers.  Children will use these questioning skills to  gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world and are curious to know more about the past. Through this study, pupils learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Regular school trips provide further relevant and contextual learning. Work will show that a range of topics is being covered, cross curricular links are made where possible and differentiated work set as appropriate. The school environment will be history rich through displays, resources, vocabulary etc.

As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future.