A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin
and culture is like a tree without roots.
- Marcus Garvey

At Blacko, we want our children to think like historians and have a rich schema of historical knowledge. We want them to gain an understanding of our local history, Britain’s past and that of the wider world through the understanding of key concepts and enquiry questions. Children should develop curiosity in what has come before them and how it has shaped current societies. They should be able to use sources of information to ask perceptive questions and draw opinions. The rich language curriculum should enable them to articulate their thoughts coherently and powerfully.

Our teaching will provide children with clear and comprehensive lessons, so that they understand history as a chronological narrative from ancient times to the present day. It should equip them with the ability to think critically, weigh evidence by sifting through arguments and develop perspective and judgement. In addition, History will help our children understand the complexity of people's lives, the process of change, the diverse societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Our aim is to start our children’s historical journey right from the very start of their reception year by building on from the Early Learning Goals of Understanding the World.

In their time in Early Years, children will have talked about the lives and roles of people around them. They will have compared things in the past to how they are now, drawing on their own experiences and on texts they have shared, and they will have used the settings, characters and events they encounter in these stories to develop their understanding of the past.

In History children are imparted with knowledge and understanding of history and its chronology. Children are taught to explore the cause and consequences of events, and their significance in time. As historians, children are taught the essential skills of being able to use and understand sources of evidence, enabling them to become greater depth historians.

Each year group learns about three different areas of history: Local, British and Global.

Within each of those units there in an enquiry questions and key concepts which underpin the key knowledge and skills. The curriculum progresses through skills, knowledge and vocabulary. Knowledge organisers are used within each lesson to build upon prior knowledge and aid children’s understanding within each unit. In addition to this, we have carefully sequenced educational visits to provide experiential learning to enhance our children’s historical understanding.

Evidence

At Blacko children have the opportunity to record their learning in a variety of ways, which is recorded within their floor books (KS1) and history books (KS2). Evidence of the learning is dependent on the lesson outcome, year group and the knowledge and skills being developed. This can be in the form of extended writing, photographs of practical activities, historical timelines, speech bubble comments relating to the learning.

Assessment

Teachers assess children’s learning throughout each lesson to ensure understanding of skills and knowledge before building onto future learning. Teachers use a range of questioning and retrieval practice to assess children against the aims of the lesson. In addition, children will also complete end point assessments at the end of each unit to assess their substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

Subject Leaders

Subject leaders will conduct deep dives, which include lesson drop ins, pupil interviews and book looks to measure the impact of our teaching, based on how much children can remember. Subject leaders will meet with their counterparts from our other trust schools and will moderate the work and monitoring outcomes from their setting to ensure that standards are exceeding the expectations.