History

‘Our school and curriculum must reflect the world: past, present and future, in all its diversity. We unlock opportunity and inspire everyone.’

Drake Primary School’s curriculum for History seeks to contribute towards each pupil’s sense of identity and allow them to ask and answer questions about themselves, their origin and their position in relation to the past and the wider world. It seeks to equip them with the knowledge and skills to find context and agency in a diverse and changing world; to ask questions, to challenge conventions and to contribute.

Through enquiry, experience and evidence, pupils will begin a journey of discovery and exploration across the ages.

We will develop all children’s understanding of their place in the world, we will promote curiosity and fascination to help children become active learners with a passion for history.

We will develop children’s skills within history:

• to question and interpret sources critically
• to identify events in a chronology and organise them
• to make links across and within topics and threads

We will build knowledge of the history of pupils’ families, of Thetford and East Anglia, of the British Isles and of the world, using both the National Curriculum and a broad Drake curriculum reflecting our population and a diverse community.

We will ensure that themes of inclusion, contrast and social justice are present in our teaching and that voices and people are given equality of representation.

We will ensure that History is taught in step with our school values, with our mission, vision and aims and with a core of social, moral, spiritual and cultural learning.

‘What is past is prologue.’

We will:

• Plan a coherent, rigorous curriculum encompassing National Curriculum objectives and providing opportunities for each pupil to make sense of their own identity within a historical context.
• Enable all pupils to experience history beyond the classroom. We will provide a range of memorable experiences with visits to museums, art galleries, culturally significant sites and welcome visitors to our school. We will involve families and the wider community and engage with voices from diverse places.
• Encourage enquiry, debate and contrasting narratives. We will encourage pupils to challenge, question and think critically and consider causation and significance of key events
• Effectively use a range of artefacts and sources, analyse nature, origin, purpose, utility, accuracy and reliability – how do we know this?
• Measure pupils’ attainment and progression of skills and knowledge with careful formative and summative assessment with an emphasis on retention and application.
• Use continuing professional development to increase our staff’s subject knowledge and expertise.
• Promote inference and teach high-order vocabulary and questioning.