HISTORY
The teaching of history at Basildon C.E. Primary, is designed to aid teachers to help students form a history schema within their long-term memories. Rather than memorising isolated facts, through building a strong historical schema, students are able to organise knowledge in a meaningful way.
As a school we map:
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Breadth of study- the topics the students will study
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Threshold concepts- the big ideas in history that students will explore through every topic (investigate and interpret the past, build an overview of world history, understand chronology, and communicate historically)
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Milestones- the goals that students should reach to show they are meeting the expectations of the curriculum.
Milestones are the goals that students are aiming for, through developing a strong schema based on knowledge, vocabulary and tasks children progress through the milestones.
Within the history curriculum, we use 10 knowledge categories that enable children to identify common themes and make links throughout different periods of history. The knowledge categories are: settlements, beliefs, culture and pastimes, locations, main events, food and farming, travel and exploration, conflict, society, artifacts.
Disadvantaged children and those with SEND are given full access to the history curriculum. Teachers use a range of strategies to enable all children to become successful historians including:
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Discrete teaching of vocabulary to ensure all children are access and used historical terminology
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Pre-teaching where appropriate for example: sharing texts with a child prior to the lesson
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Dual coding to help children efficiently learn key concepts
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Thinking maps and mind mapping to enable children to organise and memorise key knowledge.
What history looks like in lessons:
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Children gain a deeper understanding of history through the use of resources/artefacts.
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Knowledge gained about history with connections made
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Chris Quigley Milestones used to also guide planning/assessment
What history at Basildon looks like outside of lessons:
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Cross curricular links where appropriate
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Visits to historic places or visitors in school
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Clear evidence of our key values (Respect, Resilience and Excellence)
Formative Assessment
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Pre unit diagnostic assessment
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Verbal Feedback – the vast majority of feedback is in conversation with the pupil, allowing misconceptions to be spotted and effectively addressed at an early stage.
Summative Assessment
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End of unit assessment - assessed against key stage Milestones.
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Proof of Progress (POP) tasks against the milestones.
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Expectations in line with English.
Subject leaders map tier two vocabulary across each milestone and tier three vocabulary for each unit. Dual coding is used to support the discreet teaching of historical vocabulary across the curriculum.
The school’s curriculum driver of diversity underpins the entire history curriculum. Teachers actively seek opportunities to promote and celebrate diversity across the curriculum wherever appropriate. For example, rather than teaching Black History month, teachers ensure that black history is fairly reflected throughout the entire curriculum.
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