History
What is History?
At Preston Grange Primary we acknowledge that history includes the recorded past, social history, local history, recent history, memories, personal history and so ensure that from our very youngest children we begin to develop their understanding of this. We ensure that we have a balance of time scales and geographical scales. Our history curriculum starts with children understanding that the past exists and their personal history and build out until they have a developed sense of the history of Britain and the wider world.
Why do we teach History at Preston Grange?
We believe History to be an essential part of your child’s education as it allows them to understand the world (then and now), their community (local and national) and their place in both. Your child also has an entitlement to access the best of what has been said and thought and a strong understanding of History allows them to access this. Last but not least we believe that your child has a right to study History for enjoyment, curiosity and pleasure.
How do we teach History at Preston Grange?
We teach History as a discrete subject to ensure that children can understand the discipline best. WE ensure that they understand what history is, why it is important and the knowledge and attributes of a good historian. However, we do not neglect the links between History and other foundation subjects. Through our use of a 3D curriculum we ensure that learning is meaningful and deep by drawing attention to the links between subjects within a year group, across year groups and across both.
We teach History in two 3-week blocks. This ensures the children learn deeply across a unit and allows for teachers to make the most of feedback. It also allows us to develop a narrative across a period and ensure children learn and can recall what has been taught.
Our History curriculum is knowledge rich which means that we acknowledge the value of children remembering what they have been taught. We believe that before children can understand that they must have a secure knowledge base and that this knowledge base is clearly defined across school. This knowledge base includes the knowledge of how to use sources and think like a historian. It must also reflect modern Britain and our British Values.
We use two key documents in each unit we teach. The first is a Knowledge Organiser this outlines the key knowledge that a child will have at the end of a unit. If a child has this knowledge and retains it over time then they are making good progress. The second document is a Never-Heard-The-Word grid. This has key vocabulary the children will know, understand and be able to explain at the end of a unit. They will complete this at the beginning and the end of each unit.
What makes a good historian at Preston Grange?
We believe a good historian has a solid knowledge of the historical periods they have studied and can compare and contrast each of them. They must also be able to ask questions of sources and understand how historians come to conclusions and history is studied. Asking questions of the past is a key part of being a good historian but also using these questions to further study a subject out of curiosity. Finally reading and writing form a key part of being a good historian we expect children to discuss what they have read coherently and use their knowledge of a period to write extended pieces of writing.