History

Principles and Purpose of the History Curriculum

The purpose of the history curriculum is to help all students gain a coherent knowledge and chronological understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. We want to inspire students’ curiosities to know more about the past and learn to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, assess arguments, and develop perspective and judgement and be able to express this verbally and in writing.

Studying history will help students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of experiences of different groups in past societies, as well as to make sense of today’s world in the light of their knowledge of the past.

The following principles have informed the planning of our curriculum across all subjects at Sedgehill:

• Entitlement: All pupils have the right to learn what is in the curriculum, and we have a duty to ensure that all pupils are taught the whole of it.
• Coherence: Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our curriculum is carefully sequenced so that powerful knowledge builds term by term and year by year. We make meaningful connections within subjects and between subjects.
• Mastery: We ensure that foundational knowledge, skills, and concepts are secure before moving on. Pupils visit prior learning and apply their understanding in new contexts.
• Adaptability: The core content – the 'what' – of the curriculum is stable. We have brought it to life for our students by thinking about our local context. Teachers adapt lessons so that it is brought to life for our students. Teachers also adapt lessons – the 'how' – to meet the needs of their own classes.
• Representation: All pupils see themselves in our curriculum, and our curriculum takes all pupils beyond their immediate experience.
• Education with character: Our curriculum - which includes the taught subject timetable as well as spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development, our co-curricular provision, and the ethos and ‘hidden curriculum’ of the school – is intended to spark curiosity and to nourish both the head and the heart.

Here we explore these principles in the context of the history curriculum:

• Entitlement: All pupils will study a broad range of content from the past 1000 years, they will access a range of evidence and historical scholarship through their enquiries.
• Coherence: Our curriculum is chronologically sequenced with a focus on period, place, and people, which deliberately builds on and develops conceptual and disciplinary knowledge.
• Mastery: We want our pupils to be able to link new knowledge to previously taught content and understand the different ways they connect.
• Adaptability: Teachers can adapt our resources for their specific cohorts. Local history will be embedded by each department throughout the curriculum where it is relevant for their context.
• Representation: All pupils will encounter a curriculum in which they can see themselves whilst offering a range of diverse experiences that provide an opportunity to broaden their knowledge through the curriculum.
• Education with character: Through the curriculum, pupils are given many opportunities to debate historical controversy and to share and reflect on a range of topics. Within their school and local communities, there are moments for students to extend their learning beyond the classroom, such as remembrance and commemoration of significant events.

‘Why This, Why Now?’

In our planning, we have asked ourselves 'why this, why now?’ Here we provide some examples of the curriculum choices we have made, and why the units have been placed in the order we have chosen:

• Year 7 unit 1 begins in Constantinople, where East meets West, ideas are exchanged, religions coexist, and trade flourishes. This provides an understanding of the interconnectedness between different parts of the world, such as tracking the influence of the Spice Roads from China into Europe. Students gain significant context and foundational knowledge about Christianity and Islam for later in the year when they visit this region again in unit 3 through the lens of medieval conflict and the crusades. It also prepares them with a conceptual understanding of the development of scientific knowledge and the spread of ideas. This is built on in unit 6, when they learn about the Renaissance, and explore the age of discoveries. The Year 7 curriculum comes full circle as unit 6 begins with the collapse of Constantinople in the 15^th century, 400 years after they initially studied its importance and influence in the region in unit 1.
• The concepts of power and authority are present throughout Key Stage 3. For example, in Year 7 unit 3 the power struggle between the Crown and the Church are introduced. These are developed in unit 5 when specific challenges to authority are studied and compared (Becket, Magna Carta and the Peasants’ Revolt.) This power struggle culminates in the English Reformation at the beginning of Year 8 when huge religious upheaval led to long-lasting political and social changes under the Tudors. We then consider how England ended up in a period of civil war exploring the changes in power and authority, such as the strengthening of parliament and how the commonwealth briefly interrupted the system of constitutional monarchy for the only time in our national history.
• In Year 8 the concept of Britain’s emerging empire begins.  In unit 4, the Transatlantic Slave Trade highlights the establishment of an industrial system dehumanizing people to Britain’s benefit. Links between the slave trade routes and the scale and success of the Industrial Revolution are made in unit 5. In unit 6 The British Empire is addressed at its height including the actions and consequences of colonial rule for different people in different places. A range of diverse stories from across the British Empire provides different experiences and connections are revisited to tie pockets of information throughout Year 8 together by analysing links through empire with trade, slavery, identity, migration, race, profit, and political power.
• Black history is integrated throughout Key Stage 3. In Year 7 at the beginning of unit 2, we use a bridging lesson to consider what happened after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire from the British Isles and use evidence of the ‘Ivory-bangle lady’ for discussion around migration and to consider the role and status that Africans played in this society. This is picked up in Year 8 unit 2 when migration from Africa is explored again through Henry VIII’s court. In unit 4 the role of Black people and their influence is central to the debate around abolition. In unit 6, again through the lens of migration, we meet some seemingly ordinary but highly remarkable individuals, such as William Cuffey, a black Chartist deported to Tasmania whose story would never be known if it was not for the deportation records. In Year 9 we consider why the great war became a world war and the involvement and aims of the colonies in sending troops. In unit 5 we explore civil rights in 20^th century Britain including the roles of local grassroots activists campaigning for a fairer society in education, housing, health

Teaching the History Curriculum

The lessons provided within the curriculum are based on a knowledge-rich history scheme and the key concepts of knowledge-rich teaching as set out in the Rosenshine Principles of Instruction. This means there is a real focus on subject knowledge and a true understanding of historical substantive concepts e.g. revolution, monarchy, empire.

Recent cognitive research suggests that students need to have a large amount of subject knowledge stored in their long-term memory to become competent in any subject. Pupils are far better equipped to apply historical thinking and use historical skills when faced with theinformation they know and understand. For this reason, these lessons are designed to teach history clearly and deliberately, emphasising secure content knowledge before moving on to tasks. This is a step away from the 'student-centred learning' movement and puts value back onto the teacher and gives room for students to read and take notes and quiz themselves. This means students learn the content upfront and any misunderstanding or misconception is explained and addressed before students work independently, ensuring they feel more confident and are more focused on what is required. All central lessons follow the same pattern of I/we/you: Explanation/modelling >> guided practice >> independent practice.

As suggested in the Rosenshine Principles, all subjects are better understood when new information is related to prior learning. For example, the Peasants’ Revolt is more easily understood when students have learnt and mastered the Feudal System and the Black Death. Prior learning and interleaving are therefore activated in every lesson, indicating where prior content or keywords should be revisited.

So, when we walk into a history lesson, what should we expect to see?

Recap on previous learning – lessons start with a short review of previous learning. Often this will take the form of a short quiz on content from the previous lessons and any other lessons where the content may be relevant to the learning.

Pre-teach new material – before students read or discover new content themselves, teachers explain any complicated or new concepts. They chunk this into manageable steps and cold-call students to check for understanding. Often students ate given a task to engage with the new material such as filling in a table or taking organised notes. 

Checking for understanding – Students use mini whiteboards or teachers use cold calling to check for understanding and address any misconceptions.

Read/discover new material –  often an historical source, an extract from a historian or a short video clip is provided. Teachers can be as creative as they wish or have time for here. Students can work in pairs or groups or independently in their books. Extracts and worksheets can be read out by the teacher first or as a class before students begin on their own.

Apply new knowledge – having acquired new knowledge students must now apply it to a higher-order task. This usually involved extended writing and students are given scaffolding in the form of teacher modelling  or sentence starters or turn and talk to support their writing.

Assessing the History Curriculum

Formative Assessment in History

Our curriculum emphasises secure knowledge as the foundation before progressing to the application of the skill (e.g., evaluation). Lessons begin with ‘Do Now’ quizzes which test recent and prior knowledge and lessons often end with a review   quiz that also checks knowledge retention from that lesson. There are frequent pause points in many lessons to recap and test the main concept or knowledge of a lesson.

In the notes section of resource PowerPoints, there is guidance on the questions that should be asked in a lesson to check for understanding and provides teachers with the responses they should expect to elicit from students.

Regular extended tasks contained with the scheme of learning demonstrate whether students are accurately embedding the key knowledge and applying the key skill into developed responses. By reviewing these tasks as part of whole-class feedback, teachers can identify the things that students can and cannot do. This enables teachers to adapt their teaching to ensure that they only move on when students are secure.

Every enquiry is a BIG question which needs to be answered, this means a unit of work usually culminates in the question being answered by pupils in an assessment lesson.

Summative Assessment in History

Year 7, 8 and 9 will sit amid year assessment and an end of year assessment. This is structured in three sections: multiple choice questions and short answer questions, analysing sources and interpretations, long answer questions.

Recovery and Catch-up in History

Once an assessment has been made of where there are gaps in either content knowledge or/and with skills,departments will meet to discuss how to mindfully feed this forward into their planning of disciplinary history next year across the new content.

Progression in the History Curriculum

Progression between Key Stages

Pupils arrive at secondary history with a variable range of knowledge and skills. The Romans and Anglo-Saxons are expected to have been delivered in Year 6 and this prior knowledge is checked in the early days of our Key Stage 3 curriculum. At Key Stage 3, we build on concepts that will be emerging such as empire, power, and rebellion. Where there is existing knowledge in separate units, we try to help students make links and adapt their thinking, so it transcends periods, places, and people.

Key Stage 3 history curriculum is an exciting place for students to connect with stories from our past. At Key Stage 4 pupils are on an academic pathway to develop their disciplinary knowledge and deepen their substantive knowledge across four key units of the Pearson/Edexcel History GCSE course. Important historical skills are developed from analysing evidence and evaluating interpretations.

At Key Stage 5 pupils develop highly sought after and transferable skills. These include being able to effectively communicate complex ideas, the ability to research, analyse and evaluate information, both orally and in writing, and the capacity to make substantiated judgements, all whilst developing independent work skills.

Progression to University and Careers

History is one of the Russell Group Universities' 'facilitating' subjects — so-called because choosing them at A-level allows a wide range of options for degree study. One of the most flexible of qualifications, history provides an excellent pathway to degrees such as history, law, English and philosophy, and beyond that to a range of interesting careers.

Pupils can learn about researching and selecting the right history course here: Historical & Philosophical Studies | Subject Guide | UCAS and here: https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/subject-guide/history

The History Curriculum Website

We download and adapt centrally produced resources preparing lessons for our own classes and pupils.

In History we use homework booklets to support the content that is being learnt in class. Students write full sentence answers to questions on the reading in the booklets. Homework is given once every two weeks. We also use the Knowledge Organiser booklet to help students learn key terms and core knowledge for each of our units.  Half termly knowledge organiser quizzes in lessons allow teachers to track students’ learning and reward those who make progress and score highly.