History offers countless information about how people and societies behave. Through its study it is fundamental in supporting our learners to critically reason and analyse.

Our Intent for History

At St John’s Angell Town CE Primary School (SJAT) we believe that high-quality history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians. By linking learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, and to be able to communicate historically.
We develop children with the following essential characteristics to help them become historians:
• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past;
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences;
• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources;
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry;
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their learning;
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics;
• A developing sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.

Theological Underpinning:

Galatians 3,V28 -'For we al all one in Christ Jesus.'

How we Implement our History Curriculum

Our History curriculum is taught through a high quality teaching programme called Kapow. We are fortunate to be situated in a historically rich area, giving us a range of fascinating local history studies, such as London during the Blitz, Exploring Brixton Windmill, how the Romans changed Britain and the Great Fire of London. We also ensure that history is adapted to refelct our school community where possible.

Teachers are provided with an additional time to plan their curriculum. As part of this planning process, teachers need to plan the following:

-A cycle of lessons for each subject, which carefully plans for progression and depth;
-A low stakes quiz which is tested regularly to support learners’ ability to block learning and increase space in the working memory;
-Challenge questions for pupils to apply their learning in a philosophical/open manner;
-Trips and visiting experts who will enhance the learning experience;

Our History Curriculum

Our History Curriculum has been carefully designed so that it has a good balance of skills and knowledge for our learners. You can access an overview of our curriculum that shows how our history curriculum is mapped throughout the school.

Click here to access the Whole School History Curriculum Overview

 Skills Progression in History

Click here to access the Progression of Knowledge and Skills document

Our Planned Impact

Throughout their time at St John's,  children will become equipped with historical enquiry skills. This will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

• Our cross-curricular topics, thematic learning weeks and enrichment visits to historical sites will enable for greater freedom and a more in depth analysis of historical events through other subjects such as English, Maths and Art. 
• We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning about history, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.

• Our History Curriculum is of a high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  -A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes;
  -A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression across the school; Pupil discussions about their learning