History Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Intent:

At Sandwich Infant School, we want our children to love history. Our aim is that, through the teaching of History, we stimulate all children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past.  

Our History curriculum has been designed to cover all of the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that ‘a high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past.’ 

To ensure that pupils develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our History curriculum is organised into a progression model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught and are mapped out to ensure that pupils build on secure prior knowledge. Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for pupils. 

Implementation:

All History lessons where appropriate will start by revisiting prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make connections. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts. 

Consistent learning walls in every classroom provide constant scaffolding for children. Subject specific vocabulary is displayed on the learning wall along with key facts and a timeline in order to build on their Chronological Understanding.  

History assessment is ongoing throughout the term to inform and ensure all lessons are planned well with lesson activities, differentiation and next steps. Foundations subject’s assessment is completed at the end of term 2,4 and 6 stating whether children are working towards, at or exceeding age-related expectations. This is then used to make sure all children are continuing to make progress and any children whose levels drop, or increase can be addressed accordingly. 

Our historians will be given a variety of experiences both in and out of the classroom where appropriate to create memorable learning opportunities and to further support and develop their understanding. We will use historical artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits to excite and intrigue our children to find out more about events and people from the past. We aim to give our children as much understanding as possible about what is was like to be around at a particular period in history by having practical and experiential lessons where possible. 

Subject co-ordinators are given time to ensure resources are kept up to date, to monitor subject across the school, create action plans and to provide subject feedback to SLT as appropriate. 

Impact:

At Sandwich Infant school pupil voice should show that pupils able to talk about the skills and knowledge they have acquired. Children will be engaged in History lessons and want to find out more.  Pupils work will show that a range of topics are being covered, cross curricular links are made where possible, differentiated work set as appropriate and that children are using the specific vocabulary taught.  

The school environment will be history rich through displays, resources and vocabulary.  

As historians, children will learn lessons from history to influence the decisions they make in their lives in the future. Assessments and monitoring will show standards in History will be good and will match standards in other subject areas.