History
Intent
History is held in high regard at Maple Grove School. The school’s rich history, within the context of the local area, is a celebrated and inspiring feature. The history curriculum at Maple Grove draws from and makes full use of the immediate and more comprehensive local area, enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the rich history of their locality.
In line with the national curriculum 2014, the curriculum at Maple Grove aims to ensure that all pupils:
- Gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, which helps to stimulate pupils’ curiosity to know more about the history;
- Are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement;
- Begin to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the change process, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, their own identity and the challenges of their time.
What is taught?
The national curriculum informs topics and is sensitive to children’s interests and the context of the local area. The history curriculum at Maple Grove is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous knowledge and that the school’s approaches are informed by current pedagogy. Children will study past civilisations from Britain -starting with the Stone Age in Year 3 and ending World War 2 in Year 6. They will look at cultures from around the world, including The Ancient Egyptians, Mayans and Vikings and discuss what we have learnt from these times. Children in Key Stage 1 will learn about the lives of significant historical figures and the history of transport and explorers. History unit plans.
History is taught throughout the year, so children achieve depth in their learning. The critical knowledge and skills children acquire and develop throughout each topic have been mapped to ensure progression between year groups throughout the school. Teachers refer to classroom timelines at the beginning of each new history topic to develop children’s understanding of chronology. Each topic is introduced with reference to the chronology of previous topics (including those of earlier years).
History at Maple Grove is taught through key questions and a project learning approach. Children are presented with an overarching key question for a topic. This will be launched through a ‘stunning start’ to immerse children in the topic content and get them thirsty to learn more.
Each subsequent lesson starts with a sub-question through which children will develop their knowledge and skills. The finale will be a ‘show stopping’ ending where the children create a piece that brings together their understanding of the unit in a ‘real-life’ purposeful way. We will introduce the idea of ‘legacy’ to explore what we have learnt from this topic that we can apply to our lives today.
The children review key knowledge and rigorously check and consolidate it by the teacher. By the end of year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. They can draw comparisons and make connections between different periods and their lives. World history studies, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Egyptians, are interlinked with this.
Cross-curricular outcomes in history are precisely planned for, which are indicated on the school’s progression mapping. The school’s context is also considered, with opportunities for visits to places of historical interest and learning outside the classroom also identified and embedded in practice. Visits to the local area and use of local artefacts, such as maps and photographs of bomb damage to the local area in WWII, also support contextualised learning and the acquisition of key knowledge and systematic development of key skills.