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History
'A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.'
Marcus Garvey
National Curriculum Programme of Study
History Progression Document
How we teach History at The Round House
The school uses a variety of different teaching and learning styles in history lessons to develop the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in history. The children are immersed within a rich learning environment, in which they are can become absorbed within the topic that they are studying. This, in turn, creates a love of learning within the children. We believe, therefore, that our school provides children with a broad range of learning opportunities throughout their primary education.
We believe children learn best when:
They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively
They are encouraged to ask as well as answer historical questions.
They have access to, and can handle, artefacts
They visit museums and places of interest, when applicable
They have access to secondary sources such as books and photographs
Visitors talk about personal experiences of the past, when applicable
They listen to and interact with stories from the past
They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos
They are able to use non-fiction books for research
We recognise the fact that we have a wide range of children within our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by providing differentiated work within KS1 and KS2.
The role of the teacher should include:
Providing children with both taught history lessons (teacher-led) and the opportunity to explore through role-play and more independently-driven activities.
Encouraging pupils to engage in class discussions, where children are given the opportunity to ask and answer historical questions, including considering issues such as cause and consequence.
Initiating ICE Zone history activities which subsequently give pupils the opportunity to independently reflect on what was previously discussed as a class. The children enjoy the opportunity to carry out independent learning exploring the past and asking questions linking to specific topics which capture their interest.
Setting clear expectations of work within all history lessons, recognising the importance of maintaining a standard of English usage which correlates with work done in explicit English lessons.
Setting specific success criteria that focus on the required learning within each activity to help children both complete effectively and self assess their work.
Teaching within EYFS
History, although not taught explicitly within the Early Years classrooms, is evident in many of the different EYFS topics. Through a combination of exploratory play and class discussion, children start to develop their understanding of change over time in respect of their own lives. Teachers and teaching assistants will provide opportunities for exploratory role-play, opportunity for class discussions and will encourage conversations that require children to recall events from the past (whether this be in their own lives or within stories). More information about how history is taught within EYFS can be found below.
Planning
As a group, every foundation subject is discussed and planned meticulously to align with the curriculum objectives. The teachers also take ownership of each unit and introduce the unit to the children at the beginning of every term. Throughout the term, the teachers have a continuously updated overview of how and what the children are learning. With the termly topics operating on a two-year cycle, all national curriculum objectives will be covered by the end of Year 6.
Children also have the opportunity to write at length at the end of each topic. Although the ‘essay’ is used to assess their knowledge and understanding of the relevant foundation subject, it provides them with additional opportunity to write for a purpose. Children can also be assessed through 'knowledge captures', in which children recall all of the subject they have gained through their lessons.
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, the EYFS Framework is used as a basis for all planning. History is taught through a focus on changes over time in respect of their own lives, for example how they have changed since they were baby and how they will continue to change and develop as they get older. Children are asked to bring in baby photos of themselves at the start of the year to support the discussion of how they have changed over time. They are encouraged to talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members (one of the early learning goals for the end of the year). This early learning goal is very much focused on the memories of the children and they are asked to talk about special events or customs/routines for their family. We focus on the concept of time and sequence of events so the children become aware of past and future events, e.g. asking 'what happened before that?' when reading a story or looking at the sequence of events for planting seeds or getting changed for PE. At the start of the summer term we have two weeks focusing on dinosaurs which the children really enjoy too. They do activities related to this topic from all areas of learning, writing and maths for example, and also take on the role-play of a palaeontologist in the role-play area.
Opportunities to engage with History at home
Below are links to a range of different learning opportunities to use at home. Explore and enjoy!
EYFS: Dinosaurs and Animals:
What do we know about dinosaurs ?https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/primary_uk/subject/module/video/item849500/gradef/module845514/index.html
How do we know about dinosaurs?
Rotton or rascal?
Dinosaur snap activity:
Dinosaur labelling activity:
Year 1 and 2: Seaside
Baranaby Bear goes to the Seaside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qO0mu6YJW8
Seaside Entertainment – Magic Grandad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exFmcLMjKsw
Introduction to Grace Darling Video: https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/modules/t2_music_search/dynamics/video_grace_inv.html?source=search-all-all-all-all&source-keywords=Grace%20Darling
Queen Victoria Video - https://central.espresso.co.uk/espresso/primary_uk/subject/news/video/item1232663/grade1/index.html?source=search-all-all-all-all&source-keywords=Queen%20Victoria
The Beach – Magic Grandad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWgnpY4L9so
Lucy and Tom at the Seaside story
Activity to go with Lucy and Tom at the Seaside
A day at the Seaside in the past
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/history/history.htm - click on seaside holidays now and then
Year 3 and 4: South America
The history of rainforests
thinkjungle.com/rainforests/rainforest-history-seasons/
Year 5 and 6: Ancient Greece
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/topics/z87tn39
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z36j7ty
http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/gods/explore/exp_set.html (The British Museum- Gods and Goddesses)
http://mystery-productions.com/hyper/Hypermedia_2003/Miller/AM_hypermedia/Artifact/go.htm(Adventures in Ancient Greece game)
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/Greece.html
General History:
https://www.stneotsmuseum.org.uk/ - This includes:
- Videos on local history topics including early people, woolly mammoths and St Neots priory aimed at KS2 Yr 3 /4 pupils
- Craft time lapse videos for families including Easter activities
- Talks by the curator on local history topics inc the St Neots Quads