Black History Month 

The Month of October is Black History Month. All our classes came together to celebrate and share with everyone what we have been learning about in class. It was a fantastic afternoon, all classes did very well sharing all of their fantastic work that they have been doing during Black History month. 

Curriculum Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

At Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School our aim is to encourage pupils to develop an appreciation and understanding on how the past has shaped our lives. As historians, pupils are exposed to a rich and balanced curriculum that provides them with new vocabulary and sticky facts. Pupils will be taught to make links between each topic studied and build upon their existing understanding of terminology. We aim to develop curious learners that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links.

Our history curriculum has been designed to cover all the skills, knowledge and understanding as set out in the national curriculum. The national curriculum states ‘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.’  The topics taught have be specifically selected to build upon children’s understanding. It has been carefully organised into a model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a coherent way.

Implementation

History is taught in termly blocks throughout the year, so that children develop a deeper understanding and depth to their learning. Teachers understand the key knowledge and skills of each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression throughout each year group across the school. By the end of year 6, children will be secure in drawing comparisons and making connections between different time periods and their own lives. They will also have a good sense of chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day.

We start each new term with a ‘hook’ for learning. Hooks provide engagement, excitement and a gateway into a new and exciting topic. Our hook lesson is described as WOW with every hook different in its own unique way. Hooks can vary from: archaeological digs, being hands on with artefacts, WOW videos, visitors in school and many more. History is embedded throughout the curriculum using cross curricular outcomes, by creating strong links between the history curriculum and literacy lessons enables further contextual learning. History provides excellent opportunities to support all learning abilities through investigations, outdoor learning and analysing sources. We are incredibly fortunate to have a vast amount of outdoor space, including woodlands to allow children to be hands on with history, this helps to support our commitment to inclusive learning.   

Educational visits are a key part of our history curriculum and we aim to have two visits each year if we are able to do so. They offer opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional history learning outside the classroom. Our children have explored local museums and had visitors into school to share learning and have hands on experiences.

Impact

Our history curriculum offers high quality and well planned lessons which encourage progression. Continuity and progression in the curriculum is built around essential knowledge, understanding and key skills within History. These are broken into Year group expectations and have additional challenges for able learners. The ‘Essential Knowledge, Skills and Understanding’ within the Learning Challenge Curriculum helps us guarantee that the learners’ essential skills are being developed, alongside National Curriculum requirements. Furthermore, good historical questioning helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past. Through our curriculum, pupils learn to think critically, ask perceptive questions and evaluate evidence. In order to ensure our aims have been met, we scrutinise topics through:

• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught. This is recapped upon weekly during ‘flash back Friday’.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Moderation where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
• Sharing good practice in staff meetings.
• Marking of written work in books against the schools marking policy.
• Teachers to input data using our school topic assessment tracker and cohort tracker.