Key Staff

Coordinator: Miss Cooper

Governor: Mr Bowes

St Francis' History Curriculum

The study of history can bring pupils into a rich dialogue with the past and with the traditions of historical enquiry. The past and changing accounts of the past have shaped the identities of diverse people, groups and nations. Through history, pupils come to understand their place in the world, and in the long story of human development. The study of history challenges pupils to make sense of the striking similarities and vast differences in human experiences across time and place. 

School history also shows pupils how accounts of the past arise and are constructed. Pupils learn how evidence for a claim can be constituted and the conditions under which valid claims can be made. They learn how historians and others construct accounts about the past, building on and challenging or refining the work of others. Pupils learn how argument and debate can be underpinned by shared principles of enquiry, and how this can drive and test new knowledge and insight about shared pasts. (Research Review Series: History, July 2021) 

St Francis' History Curriculum Vision

Through History, pupils develop an understanding of the complexity of people’s lives across the world over time. Through P4C training pupils are able to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. Following this, pupils evaluate the similarities and differences in the historical eras, commenting on the impact of past events on present day practices and beliefs.  

The National Curriculum states that all pupils:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed 
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.

The St Francis’ history curriculum is taught primarily with chronology being the focus. Children learn that through studying history, they gain a deeper more meaningful understanding of the current world and identify how the world has changed as a result and can begin to develop questions as to how the past will continue to shape the future and their role in this.

Through historical enquiry within questions, artefact studies, analysing primary and secondary historical sources and educational visits, children have developed an inquisitive mindset and are able to explore key concepts such as cause, effect, impact, consequence, change and significance, with each year group developing a deeper understanding as they cover more historical concepts.

By the end of KS2, children will learn about Stone Age and Iron Age at the end of their St Francis’ learning journey, so that they can identify the different concepts and big ideas such as civilisation, power, monarchy throughout time and identify elements of key time periods and suggest reasons for the concepts.

St Francis' History Curriculum

Our curriculum consists of five key areas:

• I understand how the roles of people have changed the course of history over time (e.g. the development of leaders and monarchy) and how empires have affected the world around them (Monarchy and Empire) 
• I understand how settlements have changed and evolved over time, both in the UK and across other civilisations, making connections to show the influences that have been made. (Settlements) 
• I understand how people lived during different periods of time and how their way of life has changed/developed over time, including the impact in the modern world. (Life of people) 
• I understand the legacies left by the people in history and how they relate to my life today (Legacy). 
• Careers opportunities using historian skills.

Teachers share formative and summative information with each other allowing the year group planning to be adapted annually. This ensures that the cohort of children know more and remember more and have mastered and refined their skills. 

Teachers plan a sequence of lessons using the St Francis' History Curriculum to focus on the knowledge and skills being taught so they are ready for the year 7 curriculum. The knowledge and skills we want children to know are set out below:

Educating for Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

From April 2023, we have a focus on ensuring we have a wide range of perspective in our curriculum so we can educate in a way that is inclusive of the viewpoints of a wide range of protected characteristics. This is a long term journey and we are starting by ensuring the identity of individuals studied is explicitly taught.