HISTORY AT GUESTLING
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In 2019 GBS was awarded Heritage Status by Historic England. To become a Heritage School, GBS had to demonstrate that they had delivered an effective heritage project that included learning outside the classroom. They also had to embed their heritage work into the curriculum and share their work with other schools.
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Bringing History Alive
Role-play forms part of the History learning enabling children to develop a true understanding of life in the past e.g. drama/dance WW1 activities.
We endeavour to use the museums within the area and have fostered links with Hastings Museum. We also take children to the British Museum in London to view the Egyptian rooms.
Year 4 enjoyed our most recent workshop where the experiences of World War 11 evacuees were brought to life!
Intent
Our intent of history teaching here at Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School is to stimulate the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We teach children a sense of chronology, and through this they develop a sense of identity, and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage.
‘We aim to ensure they learn to value their own and other people’s cultures in modern multicultural Britain and, by considering how people lived in the past, they are better able to make their own life choices today. In our school, history makes a significant contribution to citizenship education by teaching about the manner in which Britain developed as a democratic society.
We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach them to investigate these past events and, by so doing, to develop the skills of enquiry, analysis, interpretation and problem-solving. Our history curriculum provides opportunities for all pupils, including SEND and disadvantaged pupils, to develop the skills, knowledge and independence to continue their future history learning in Year 7 and beyond.
Through our history curriculum, our aims are:
- to engage interest in the past and stimulate children’s curiosity into finding out more;
- to develop knowledge and understanding of how people lived in other times and how those times were different from today;
- to enable children to know about significant events in British history, and to appreciate how things have changed over time;
- to develop a sense of chronology;
- to encourage thinking about cause and effect, and how the past influences the present to experience a range of representations of the past;
- to develop the ability to communicate historical knowledge in a variety of forms;
- to understand how Britain is part of a wider European culture, and to study aspects of European history;
- to have some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world;
- to help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their citizenship and cultural heritage;
- to develop in children the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation.
Implementation
At Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School, teachers bring the history curriculum to life and engage children through a range of exciting topics and a variety of stimuli, including key texts, studies of famous historians, historical artefacts and events, workshops and school trips. As a staff, we maintain strong links to the National Curriculum and incorporate an enquiry-based approach to children’s learning about key historical events and people.
We develop our Medium Term Plans drawing on historical themes in the termly topics, making links with other subjects wherever possible, including: Art, Music, Science, RE, English, Maths and Geography. Links are made to termly themes and other curriculum subjects where appropriate, and these develop our Learning Journeys on our Medium Term Plans. Long-term plans identify individual historical units taught across the year group phases and the key skills developed in each unit. A planned progression of skills built into the history curriculum, means that the children are increasingly challenged as they move through the school.
Teaching, learning and historical enquiry is planned in line with the curriculum overview. Teachers are expected to use the Historical Association and Key Stage History websites for the base of their planning supplemented by other high quality resources.
We believe educational visits help to promote learning in all aspects of history and we aim to incorporate it in all areas of the curriculum. In particular, children study at depth our local area allowing regular opportunities to explore the area they live and learn in. Our curriculum is designed so that we can make full use of historical places of interest in our local area such as Battle Abbey to teach about invasion, migration and settlement.
As evident in the overview below, at Guestling-Bradshaw history is taught discretely over three half terms per year, however some units are carried over to allow for depth and breadth of learning within that subject area.
Pupil’s are sat in mixed ability groups following our co-operative learning approach and to promote oracy, and a variety of teaching approaches such as whole-class lessons, group, paired and individual work and discussions are experienced by pupil’s during their history lessons.
Vocabulary
As a school, we have a strong emphasis on the value of quality-first teaching in relation to subject specific vocabulary. Pupils are exposed to a range of specific vocabulary outlined in the progression map and knowledge organisers. This will involve children building their vocabulary with scaffolding both in their books and on display in the classroom to explore the meaning and apply these new words to their learning. Teachers are expected to ask high quality questions at the beginning of each lesson which recaps on previous vocabulary knowledge to ensure recall from the children. This will be done in a variety of ways to ensure all children are engaged including never heard the word, BINGO games and quizzes.
Click below to see our Humanities Overview
Visits and workshops
At Guestling we promote hands-on History by using professional companies to run whole day workshops to bring topics such as the Romans and Iron Age to life.
Role-play forms part of the History learning enabling children to develop a true understanding of life in the past e.g. drama/dance WW1 activities.
We endeavour to use the museums within the area and have fostered links with Hastings Museum. We also take children to the British Museum in London to view the Egyptian rooms.
Year 4 enjoyed our most recent workshop where the experiences of evacuees were brought to life!
We also have had whole school themed History weeks which we are looking forward to reintriducing. During the week the classes emerge themselves in cross-curricular learning, role play, video conferencing, visiting speakers. Such weeks culminate in whole school displays/exhibitions to which all parents are invited. Our WWI exhibition went to St Laurence Church and to Hastings Museum.
Impact
Guestling Bradshaw has personalised the National Curriculum to ensure children will know more and remember more by making links between subjects and year groups which deepen their learning. History, wherever possible, links with with our termly themes and meets the needs of our children to provide knowledge of our local area as well as ensuring coverage of a diverse range of civilisations and cultures. For example, year 1 explores how the seaside has changed in the past 100 years, whilst year 4 learn about the Battle of Hastings.
Pupils in Foundation Stage learn:
Understanding the World
Past and Present
Children develop an understanding and knowledge of some similarities and differences between things in the past and now, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class. They use Britain and China to compare. They understand the past through settings, characters and events encountered in books read in class and storytelling. Children access these objectives through provision which is centered around the children and their enquiry, with much emphasis placed upon stories and discussions. It is important to recognise that the early years education is the building blocks to children accessing the Key Stage 1 learning.
Pupils in Key Stage 1 and 2 learn:
The children will know and understand the history of the UK from the earliest times to the present day and will know how people’s lives have shaped the UK. They will know how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world and know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world including the nature of ancient civilisations.
The five main threads throughout our history curriculum that children study in different topics in Key Stage 1, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2 are:
Changing Civilisations
Invasion, Migration and Settlement
Technological Advancement
Society, laws and beliefs
Significant Individuals
These threads are made explicit to children on their knowledge organisers and throughout their topic, to show how it links with previous learning.
Useful Links
BBC Bitesize - click on the key stage, then the subject you are interested in.