History

Our History curriculum vision is:

To understand that history requires us to interpret past events in order to construct stories about what happened so that we can learn from them in the way we live our lives today.

At Birkbeck, we believe that History plays a vital role in shaping our understanding of the world around us, what has gone before, the way things are now and what is to come. It also provides an excellent grounding for thinking around what our individual roles in the future of our world could be. 

Our curriculum coverage posters provide information about which units are taught in which year groups and the order in which they are taught. You can view the History one below:

COMING SOON... 

Our History curriculum is underpinned by threads of key concepts which are strategically revisited throughout a child's journey through the curriculum. By designing our curriculum in this way, we ensure that new knowledge builds on existing knowledge which makes it more easily retrievable from long term memory and enables children to see links and connections more clearly as they progress through the school. In turn, this makes it easier for them to engage in the disciplinary elements of the subject to analyse, compare and draw inferences and conclusions. You can read about what our History concept threads are and where they appear in our curriculum in the document below:

history concept thread development.pdf

 

Below you can see the development of our key concept threads in grid form so that you can see how each one is progressed and developed as children move through the school.

history curriculum thread development table.pdf

 

 

Because of the nature of our curriculum, the knowledge we teach is planned in precise detail and you can read more about what we cover in each unit of work in the documents below. 

 

curriculum content by subject history.pdf

 

Lesson delivery

Every History lesson begins with a retrieval practice starter which has the aim of revisiting knowledge from the previous unit of work which our assessments have suggested children did not fully understand at the point of the assessment. 

Every lesson also includes clarification of any technical vocabulary to be used in the lesson. This always takes place before the main lesson content begins.

All History lessons are delivered in line with our overall principles of teaching and learning and with our Principles of History teaching. These are the principles that we believe underpin truly great teaching and learning, specifically in the context of History teaching. You can read about these in our History implementation guide below. This document also details which units of work children study in which terms of each year.

 

birkbeck primary school history implementation guide.pdf

 

Assessment

We assess History once per term. Children complete an assessment based on the key concepts that have been taught in the unit of work being assessed. The assessments take place in week two of the preceding term to allow for some forgetting to have taken place. This means that we can rely more certainly on the robustness of knowledge that children have remembered. It also means that we can use the assessment as learning opportunity in itself because the act of thinking hard to remember previously taught knowledge actually increases the retrieval strength of that piece of knowledge, meaning that it is easier to retrieve the next time round. 

The outcomes from assessments inform our judgements about whether or not a child is meeting the expected standard for a year group but more importantly, they identify gaps in their knowledge that we need to address. The most common gaps are revisited as starter activities for the following six weeks to give children an opportunity to consolidate and re-learn the knowledge a second time.

We also utilise the testing effect (the act of actively trying to remember previously taught knowledge to apply it) on a  weekly basis with our 'Early Afternoon Work'. For example, if History is taught on a Monday then on a Thursday, (3 days after the teaching), children will have a question on the board for them to get on with when they come in from lunch that tests how well they have remembered the content taught on the Monday. Teachers then provide feedback to ensure that the correct understanding has been processed by all children. 

 

Please also take the time to watch our History curriculum presentation from our parents and carers workshop below.

/i/video/History_curriculum_presentation.mp4