At The Hundred of Hoo Academy, we want every child to be happy and enthusiastic learners of History, and to be eager to achieve their very best in order to fulfil their enormous potential. We firmly believe that the recipe for success is high quality first-wave teaching in History, which is central to the life of our happy, caring academy.
Our principal aim is that children leave The Hundred of Hoo Primary Academy with a wide range of happy and rich memories in History formed through interesting and exciting experiences, driven through the vehicle of the Primary Years Programme, which enhance a child’s awareness of their own abilities and strengths as a learner; thus ensuring that children see learning in History as an on-going process, not a one-off event. Children will meet the National Curriculum expectations in History, through the International Baccalaureate framework, which will be taught by highly-qualified, enthusiastic staff, determined to support children to develop mastery of concepts and inspire enthusiasm and interest in the subject. Opportunities will exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom, interleaved with other areas of the curriculum, international-mindedness and how British Values relate to key historical knowledge and skills.
Scheme of Learning
Our PYP approach is underscored by the National Curriculum. The schemes allow for appropriate sequencing and aims to secure long-term memory as well as the enjoyment and necessary curiosity of learning history. This can be found here.
The key areas are concerned with building knowledge, developing understanding of the big ideas and processes of history, and the overall goal of history education: we want young people to gain an increasingly mature and informed historical perspective on their world. The areas are developed throughout KS1 and KS2 in order to efficaciously prepare children for secondary education.
The development of children’s understanding of historical thinking and associated skills are taught through a range of opportunities during their time at The Hundred of Hoo Academy. The high quality learning of History is intertwined into their everyday learning around their Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry. These have been carefully designed, with clearly defined end goals and outcomes to ensure consistency and progress for all learners.
Children will have opportunities to expand their learning through different experiences, within the school, (talks, experts and events) and visits (to museums, National Trust sites and exhibitions), to help gain knowledge and understanding of the time periods and eras they are studying as well as understanding how the subject of History is used in the wider world. Using strategically selected current and past historians and explorers helps to deepen their knowledge and explore different sources (primary and secondary) of information and vocabulary. The subject leader will meet the senior Leadership team and representatives of Leigh Academies Trust to ensure that the teaching in History is highly effective. This high quality teaching will respond to the needs of the learners through formative and summative assessment with teachers actively responding to learning, understanding and live marking work in lessons in order to identify misconceptions early. An assessment grid (the foundation skills assessment) is used to formally record an overview of progress of each child.
Assessment
Each lesson will include live marking (as per the Conferencing/Marking and Feedback Policy). Homework is not formally set in history but knowledge activities (both written and abstract) are encouraged to enhance enrichment opportunities; these may take the form of (but not limited to) reading historical books, watching history programmes such as ‘Horrible Histories’ and visiting places of historical interest. High quality teaching responds to the needs of children. Spiral learning is a key focus of all formative and summative assessment with teachers actively marking work in lessons in order to identify misconceptions early. An assessment grid (the foundation skills assessment) is used to formally record an overview of progress of each child.
Cultural Capital
- Children will learn about key figures from history
- Meeting and talking to history specialists including secondary teachers.
- Visit to at least one local and one national museum.
- Visit to a place of local historical interest
- A cross-curricular understanding of key historical figures
Children of all abilities and backgrounds achieve well in History reflected in exceptional progress that reveals a clear learning journey. The children are engaged in high quality lessons which provide the learners with a thorough grasp of historical knowledge. They are eager to talk about their learning in History and further their learning in the next stages of their education. Children can make clear links across the curriculum and the IB PYP framework to develop well rounded pupils. They experience a wide range of high quality and well-mapped learning which enriches their lives – delivered through a local, national and international context – a range of challenges within the subject and a deepened appreciation of how British Values can celebrate differences across the community. Through wider reading, including Horrible Histories; BBC bitesize; Historical Association articles; BBC news along with a range of library books tailored to children’s reading ages, children understand how events in History have influenced the modern world. Children can understand the reliability of varied sources and through this exposure, children produce work which is influenced by a wide range of high-quality and challenging resources.