Intent
At Rutherford house, History holds a special place in our hearts. Taught to explore civilizations that came before us, and to observe how their lives have impacted the ways we live today, History helps us to understand how the world that once was has sculpted the world that now is. Our enquiry-based curriculum focuses on honing the skills needed to become independent History learners. Looking at stems such as chronology, cause and consequence to interpretations, each year builds on these skills and link their topics accordingly, helping to provide children with clear progress and expansion on their historical knowledge.
Implementation
Our curriculum is implemented through high quality teaching and learning, engaging topics, and big questions which children seek to unpick and expand on throughout the school year. Sparking curiosity in our pupils is extremely important, which is why we kick off every topic with a ‘Big Bang’, immersing children in a fun filled day based around their upcoming topics, which link to our humanities lessons. During lessons, children analyse primary and secondary sources of information, present their findings in various thinking skill’s maps, and explore the relationship between different periods of time through role play and other creative outlets. Children explore the chronology of different time periods through the use of time-lines and come to their own interpretations of why certain historic events happen, through open discussion and enquiry. Cross-curricular links with English also help to deepen children’s understandings of a historical period, allowing them to empathise with characters and experience what it was like to live during that time.
Impact
By implementing our highly enriched History curriculum, children develop the skills needed to become independent learners, taking this learning and applying it to other areas of their school life. They understand what it is like to be a real Historian, realising their place in the world and how History has impacted this for them. As they grow and flourish year after year, they will learn the importance of self-assessment, and how to check their own ideas against information that already exists in the world. This will help to sculpt them into confident and resilient people, affecting and enriching the rest of their schooling experience.
