Intent

At Caldecote CE Academy,  we recognise that the rich subject of History can inspire our children to identify with and understand more about people in the past. Through our curriculum, we aim to develop our children's understanding of their place in the world and to enable our children to understand the similarities and differences across time and place. 

Our Intent is that:

• Our curriculum is designed to be engaging and to ensure full access and inclusion for all of our children.
• History is taught as a discrete subject, ensuring that substantive and disciplinary knowledge is a priority.
• The richness of History is promoted through cross-curricular links, creating opportunities for furthering historical understanding through subjects such as Geography, Art and Design Technology. 
• We endeavor to enrich our curriculum with school trips and visits such as to Shuttleworth.  Our trips are planned to bring History learning to life and give our children cultural experiences that may not otherwise experience. 
• We have planned our curriculum to build on children's knowledge as they move through the school, starting in Reception developing through 'Understanding the World'  and travelling through Key Stage 1 and to the end of year 4 as they prepare to transition to middle school/ 
• Our curriculum is designed to enable our children to 'know more and remember more' through the teaching of substantive knowledge of facts and information.
• Through engaging and interesting lessons, we want to inspire children to want to know more about the past and think and act as historians, understanding their role in time. 

Implementation

The History curriculum at Caldecote is based on the National Curriculum and has been structured to be complementary to the topics / themes we cover during the school year.

Using timelines in class, we support children to connect events together, making them more memorable and deepening their understanding of events and periods, while supporting children to orientate their knowledge in time. 

Through our carefully planned curriculum we support our children to develop a mental timeline and to understand the chronological order of broad periods, and linking themes across periods of time.  To aid implementation of the History curriculum we have a whole school overview which details how our History teaching builds across the school. The summary below details this on a basic level. 

Our Rationale for the order with which we teach Historical periods.

Some historical periods are taught out of chronological order, for example William Caxton because this links so well to the KS2 Topic of inventors  and Local history is taught to link with enrichment opportunities e.g. Shuttleworth and the English texts being covered which are rich opportunities for children to develop a wide range of Historical and English Skills. This also gives children the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of a particular time period by making links with other curriculum areas. 

We have mapped the knowledge and skills for each area to ensure they are taught progressively and in a logical and sequential structure.

Lessons are planned to be engaging, to encourage children to be curious and to ask questions. Key vocabulary is taught and built on year on year.

Impact

Through our curriculum and the careful planning of an engaging and inspiring curriculum, the children will be able to:

• Know more and remember more. Specifically substantive knowledge, fact and information about a variety of periods in time and we have taken specific areas to follow and develop through the school, to enable children to build on their understanding.
• Understand the chronology of history and identify their place within history.
• Have developed a mental timeline which becomes more complex as children progress through the school.
• See themselves as Historians, using disciplinary knowledge to understand about life in different times through History.
• Have experienced and focused upon a range of Historical Concepts, developing their ability to 'think like a historian' these include: Cause, consequence, change and continuity, similarity and difference, sources and evidence and historical interpretation. 
• Children will enjoy history as a subject, be curious and interested to find out more and speak confidently about their learning and the skills they have as historians.

The impact of our History Curriculum is measured in a variety of ways. Questioning during lessons, through marking and feedback, listening the child led discussions, through pupil voice and through reviewing work in children's books.