History at Bolton

Subject Lead: Andrea Moody (Since September 2020)

Monitoring Governor: Carla Miller 

What does History look like at our school?

History at Bolton offers a coherently planned sequence of lessons of local, national and internationally significant periods, events and historical aspects; ensuring teachers have progressively covered the skills and concepts required in the National Curriculum. Our aim is for children to leave us feeling inspired and curious to find out even more. We support our children to do this by building awareness of both their own heritage and that of the wider world, and by equipping them with the essential disciplinary skills that can be used and applied within meaningful historical enquiry.  

The curriculum will develop historical skills and concepts which are transferable to whatever period of history is being studied and will equip children for future learning. These key historical skills and concepts, which are revisited throughout different units, are: Historical Interpretations; Historical Investigations; Chronological Understanding; Knowledge and Understanding of Events, People and Changes in the Past; Presenting, Organising and Communicating.

This process of knowledge acquisition begins in Reception with a focus on local history and familiar aspects of the past. Learning about the immediate world around them is the ideal foundation for later learning in Key Stage 1 and 2.  For example, the coverage of recent history in KS1 through units such as ‘Toys’ and ‘Kings and Queens’ enables children to build upon their understanding of time, events and people within their memory and their parents’ and grandparents’ memories. This learning is undertaken whilst children also build knowledge of substantive concepts and slowly enrich their chronological schema. Children learn to ask questions, use different sources and begin to understand that the past can be represented in different ways. Enquiry questions will ensure that the disciplinary concepts are covered, for example, the disciplinary concepts of similarity and difference, cause and consequence & change and continuity. Children will have a secure understanding of substantive concepts that have been re-visited throughout the curriculum; concepts, such as, conquest, trade, empire and civilization. Alongside developing substantive knowledge we want our children to have developed a secure grounding in disciplinary concepts, recognizing how to ask historical questions using sources and through communicating their ideas. 

For example, in KS2 the unit of work on Carlisle Castle (Y5/6) builds upon understanding of historical terms, such as, monarch and war encountered in KS1 when studying Kings and Queens, and in Lower Key Stage 2, terminology such as, reign, empire, invasion and kingdoms when studying Anglo-Saxons, Romans and WW2. There are other inbuilt opportunities to make connections and develop links Anglo-Saxons and Scots (Y3/4) with Vikings & Anglo-Saxons (Y5/6). In KS2, the units of work enable children to see how civilisations were interconnected. Children start to understand how some historical events occurred concurrently in different locations, e.g., Ancient Egypt and the Stone Age. Disciplinary knowledge is systematically developed in tandem with substantive knowledge. Each unit taught will ensure that children develop a wider chronological understanding of history, lessons will incorporate a focus on an understanding of time and where key events occurred; as we have mixed age classes we have a two-year cycle in place, which affects our ability to teach time periods in a chronological order, however, a timeline is displayed within the classrooms and children can reference and refer to events from prior learning and units yet to come.    

In order for children to know more and remember more in each area of history studied, there is a structure to the lesson sequence whereby prior learning is always considered and opportunities for revision of facts and historical understanding are built into lessons. However, this is not to say that this structure should be followed rigidly: it allows for this revision to become part of good practice and ultimately helps build a depth to children’s historical understanding. Through revisiting and consolidating skills, our lesson plans and resources help children build on prior knowledge alongside introducing new skills and challenge. Activities are adapted for children with SEND, such as using enlarged text, clear fonts & well spaced print. Teachers identify and break down the components of the subject curriculum into manageable chunks for pupils who find learning more difficult, particularly those with cognition and learning needs. These may be smaller ‘steps’ than those taken by other pupils to avoid overloading the working memory. • A variety of additional scaffolds may be used in lessons, such vocabulary banks, additional visual stimuli or adult support.  We have medium term plans that are developed by subject leaders; these are a specific series of lessons for each unit, which will usually start with a question or area of focus and will include an assessment of prior knowledge.  These are stored in the subject leader file and on Teams. Units are delivered over a half term, which is generally a 5-7 week block, and follow a similar sequence of accumulative learning with an assessment unit at the end. Teachers reflect on teaching & learning in individual lessons and throughout the unit as a whole and adapt accordingly. The revision and introduction of key vocabulary is built into each lesson and the use of knowledge organisers. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources to ensure that children are allowed opportunities to repeat and revise this knowledge. Storytelling is such a key part of history and our youngest children are supported to understand the past through the settings, characters and events they encounter in stories read and shared. Our children will further develop their enjoyment of listening to and reading stories through the inclusion of texts, with historical focus and content, fostered throughout our history curriculum; children will further develop critical thinking and literacy skills through this cross curricular approach.  Our children will leave us feeling inspired and curious to find out even more. We will support our children to do this by building awareness of both their own heritage and that of the wider world, and by equipping them with the essential disciplinary skills that can be used and applied within meaningful

historical enquiry

Please see our History at Bolton document below for more information, including our policy, progression of skills and long term plans.