History

INTENT

Our Intent for History at Swaffield is that
We Understand: Chronology, Cause of chronology and Impact of Change.

Understanding Chronology:

Understanding chronology is a key skill in History as it allows pupils to place events, people, and developments in the correct order over time. This skill helps children understand the progression of history, from ancient civilizations to more recent times and recognize patterns and sequences. Developing a sense of chronology supports children in understanding how the past shapes the present and future. It also enables them to see connections between events and periods, providing a foundation for more complex historical thinking in later years.

Impact of change:

Impact of change is an important concept in History, helping children to understand how events or actions lead to specific consequences. By investigating the causes of historical events, children learn to identify why certain things happened, and by exploring the impacts, they see how those events shaped people’s lives, societies, and the world. This helps children develop a deeper understanding of how history is interconnected.

Cause of Change:

Cause of change focuses on the reasons behind historical transformations. Children will explore how and why societies change over time due to factors such as technological advances, cultural shifts, or significant events like wars or revolutions. By studying these changes, children develop an understanding of how human actions and decisions lead to transformations in the way people live, work, and think.

Our Intent is that our History curriculum inspires our 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 our pupils to develop the confidence to think critically, ask questions, and be able to explain and analyse historical evidence.

Visit our Curriculum page which gives details of Swaffield's 2024/2025 curriculum for each year group.

Implementation

We use the Kapow scheme of work to support our teaching of History. In order to meet the aims of the National curriculum for History and in response to the Ofsted Research review into History, our curriculum is designed through the following key strands:

The Kapow Primary scheme emphasises the importance of historical knowledge being shaped by the approach shown in the diagram above. These strands are interwoven through all our History units to create engaging and enriching learning experiences, which allow the children to investigate history as historians do.

We use the Kapow scheme of work to support our teaching of History and adapt it to meet the needs of our school. For example, when Year 6 learn about migration after the Second World War, they link that to the multi-cultural context of the class and parents are encouraged to come in and share their stories. Another example, is when Year 1 learn about toys, they invite parents and grandparents to come in and show toys that they used to use and talk about them.

The Kapow scheme follows the spiral curriculum model where previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon. For example, children progress by developing their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of historical contexts and periods.

See the long-term plan as well as the progression of knowledge and skills in History here:

Impact

We monitor the impact of our History teaching through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each unit has a skill catcher and knowledge assessment quiz which we use at the beginning and end of the unit to provide a summative assessment. Teachers use the information from these assessments to inform their planning and teaching in the next unit.

By the end of Year 6, our pupils should leave equipped with a range of skills to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be enquiring learners who ask questions and can make suggestions about where to find the evidence to answer the question. They will be critical and analytical thinkers who are able to make informed and balanced judgements based on their knowledge of the past. They will be able to understand chronology, the impact of change and the cause of change.

Please also take a look at our Black History Month newsletter here.

We wanted to express our appreciation for the excellent programme you have created around Black History Month.
Our child, (Y2 Chameleon) has enjoyed the rich and thoughtful content across various genres and time periods. We look forward to enjoying and learning from all the other cultural programmes coming up through the year!