History at Our Lady of the Rosary
Joy Excellence Service
For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6
CURRICULUM STATEMENT
History stimulates the children’s interest and understanding about the life of people who lived in the past. We aim for the children to develop a sense of identity and a cultural understanding based on their historical heritage. We teach children to understand how events in the past have influenced our lives today; we also teach the children to investigate these past events.
By doing so, to develop the skills of:
• making local links
• chronological understanding
• understanding of events and people, similarities and differences, change and continuity
• historical enquiry, significance and interpretation
• organisation and communication
SUBJECT RATIONALE
We want the children to develop a love of learning about the past and we do this by encouraging the use of artefacts within lessons, trips, visits and online workshops so that the subject of history is brought to life for the children.
Our aim is to build upon the children’s historical knowledge and skills each year, as they progress throughout the school. They should develop a meaningful understanding of the key concepts that we have embedded throughout our curriculum such as legacy, empire and trade and be able to discuss what these mean and why they are so important.
We encourage the children to develop their local historical knowledge so that they have an understanding of the historical significance of where they are living especially as we are so close to Windsor Castle and the sight of the Magna Carta.
CURRICULUM MAP
PROGRESSION OF SKILLS EYFS
PROGRESSION OF SKILLS KS1
PROGRESSION OF SKILLS KS2
PROGRESSION OF SKILLS KS2
PROGRESSION OF KNOWLEDGE EYFS
PROGRESSION OF KNOWLEDGE KS1
PROGRESSION OF KNOWLEDGE KS2
PROGRESSION OF KNOWLEDGE KS2
WHAT DOES AN OLRS HISTORY LESSON LOOK LIKE?
History lessons will begin with a low stakes retrieval quiz to ascertain what knowledge the pupils have committed to their long term memory.
Pupils use their knowledge organisers to mark off the learning enquiry studied in the lesson and to look at any new vocabulary and concepts studied.
Teachers will teach their lesson using a range of resources including: artefacts, books, film clips and online workshops.
WHAT DOES AN OLRS HISTORY LESSON LOOK LIKE?
Solo Taxonomy is used to childrenprovide with a range of challenging, engaging and motivating tasks to move their learning on.
WHAT DOES AN OLRS HISTORY LESSON LOOK LIKE?
Teachers adapt lessons to support any pupils who have additional SEND needs so that they can fully access the lesson.
We have strong links with Chertsey Museum and teachers often request loan boxes to enhance their lessons. This enables children to handle artefacts and documents relating to their topic.
Teachers monitor pupils within every lesson to make sure that they are reaching the required outcome by the end of the topic.
ASSESSMENT
We assess children’s work in history by making judgements as we observe them during each history lesson. On completion of a piece of work, the teacher marks the work and provides feedback, either verbal or written. We also carry out low-stakes retrieval assessment tasks, throughout the topic, to ascertain what knowledge the pupils have retained and are able to recall. Once they complete a unit of work, we make a summary judgement of the work of each pupil by carrying out an assessment where the children answer a, ‘big question’. The results of these assessments are recorded and reported back to the headteacher, subject leader, pupils and pupils’ parents. We use these assessment results to plan future work with pupils, and to transfer information on to the next teacher at the end of the year.
ENRICHMENT
Within every history topic, there are opportunities for enrichment. This may take the form of workshops, such as in Year 2 with the Great Fire of London, in Year 3 with a Stone Age workshop or Year 5 where they take part in an online workshop on ‘The Maya’. Many year groups go on historical trips to enhance the learning carried out in the classroom. For example, Year 6 visit the RAF museum in Hendon as part of their WW11 project and Year 1 visit Windsor Castle as part of a local study on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. We are active participants in national and cultural events such as Remembrance Day, Coronation, Parliament Week and Black History Month.
PUPIL VOICE
“I enjoy my history lessons as we get to take part in workshops and to touch artefacts from the past.” Year 2
“I like my history lessons because they help us to change the world by learning about mistakes from the past.” – Year 3
“I enjoy learning about other people from the past and I find our history trips and workshops really interesting.” – Year 5
SUCCESSES
We gained the Silver History Quality mark in November 2023.
As a school we were very pleased to achieve this. Here are the final comments from our assessor:
“The provision of history at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School is enjoyed through all aspects of the school including pupils, teachers, and parents. The school should be proud of the work they are doing in providing pupils with a good level of provision in history. Thank you for making my visit so enjoyable, and for providing a comprehensive portfolio prior to the visit.”
