Our Vision for History

It is our belief that the provision of History within our setting should meet the needs of each and every one of our children and be informed by our understanding of their backgrounds and the social, cultural and environmental barriers they face. Our determination to help our children overcome these barriers to learning, by ensuring we offer them appropriate and ambitious curriculum opportunities, is the principal at the core of all of our curriculum. It is our responsibility to equip our children with the cultural capital they require to thrive as informed and thoughtful members of our community. It is our duty to nurture their understanding of how the world they live in has been shaped by the events of the past and to inspire them to realise their own agency to shape their world of the future.

Our Aims for History

Through high-quality History teaching, we aim to encourage and develop an understanding of:

• significant events and individuals in global, British and local history
• how things have changed over time
• the complexity of people’s lives, the diversity of societies and the relationships between different groups
• the many reasons why people may behave in the way they do
• substantive concepts including power, invasion, settlement and migration, empire, civilisation, religion, trade, the achievements of humankind, society and culture

We aim to inspire pupils to be curious and creative thinkers who develop a complex knowledge of local and national history and the history of the wider world. We want pupils to develop the confidence to think critically, ask questions, and be able to explain and analyse historical evidence.

How do we deliver History?

We use Kapow and our delivery of History focuses on:

• change and continuity
• cause and consequence
• similarities and differences
• historical significance
• historical interpretations
• sources of evidence
• chronology to allow children to explore the place in time of the period they are studying and make comparisons in other parts of the world
• and opportunities to learn from mankind’s past mistakes

These concepts will be encountered in different contexts during the study of local, British and world history. Accordingly, children will have varied opportunities to learn how historians use these skills to analyse the past and make judgements. They will confidently develop and use their own historical skill set. As children progress through the Kapow scheme, they will create their own historical enquiries to study using sources and the skills they have developed.

Curriculum Design in History

It is our intention that all of our children work towards building a robust Historical schema of skills, knowledge and concepts, revisited and applied within and across units and Year Groups in order to facilitate commitment to and retrieval from long-term memory so that they become securely embedded.

Our Intended Coverage in History

Knowledge and Skills:

Discussion and Debate in Humanities

We believe that all our children should be given the opportunity to discuss and debate a wide range of topics within and across our curriculum, enabling them to form their own opinions and viewpoints. We believe their worldview should be informed not simply by what their teachers have taught them but through their own exploration of the questions our world asks of them and meaningful dialogue with their peers. We allow for this by actively planning opportunities for discussion and debate into our lessons and wider provision and opening up space for all of our children to take the lead, express their thoughts, shape their arguments and be heard.

Courageous Advocacy

At Peterhouse, we believe it is our responsibility to equip our children with the knowledge they require to thrive as informed and thoughtful members of our community and the wider world. We aim to nurture their understanding of how the world they live in has been shaped by the events of the past and to inspire them to realise their own agency to shape their world of the future by safely challenging issues they feel strongly about and being advocates for change. As such, in addition to covering the History and Geography National Curriculums, we also offer our own Courageous Advocacy curriculum.

For more information about Courageous Advocacy, please see our Courageous Advocacy Curriculum Page.

SEND in History

• Teachers will follow the school SEND Policy and will incorporate any appropriate Learning Plan targets into the delivery of lessons.
• Our inclusive approach and support and adjustments allow all children to access learning in all lessons regardless of barriers to learning, race, gender, faith, culture specific need or disability.

Assessment in History

As with all subjects, our teachers follow the school Assessment Policy. In History, the expectation is the following:

• Pre/post assessment and retrieval tasks will be planned into units and individual lessons to provide evidence of progress and of knowledge and concepts from within and across units and Year Groups having been committed to long-term memory.