Iver Heath

Nurturing happy, healthy, confident learners in a safe, rich learning environment

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History

Please click here for the Long Term History plan

Iver Heath infant School and Nursery History Policy

November 2020

Introduction

 Article 13 (freedom of expression) Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law.

  • Article 14 (freedom of thought, belief and religion) Every child has the right to think and believe what they choose and also to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights.
  • Article 17 (access to information from the media) Every child has the right to reliable information from a variety of sources, and governments should encourage the media to provide information that children can understand. Governments must help protect children from materials that could harm them.
  • Article 28 (right to education) Every child has the right to an education. Primary education must be free and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child.
  • Article 29 (goals of education) Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

 History fires pupils’ curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world.  Pupils consider how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people's actions.  As they do this, pupils develop a chronological framework for their knowledge of significant events and people. History teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement. History helps us to understand the complexities of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as our own identity within modern Britain.

Intent

 Our objectives in the teaching of history are:

  • To enable children to remember and talk about significant events in their own experiences.
  • To enable children to recognise and describe special times or events for their family or friends.
  • To enable children to talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of other family members.
  • To give children the opportunity to experience some of these skills through play, stories and discussion.
  • To teach children about changes in home and national life within living memory.
  • To teach children about significant events beyond living memory that are nationally or globally significant e.g. Great Fire of London.
  • To teach children about significant events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries.
  • To teach children about the lives of significant individuals in the past who contributed to national or international achievements.
  • To develop children’s understanding about aspects of life in different periods of history.
  • To teach children about significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
  • To enable children to develop their chronological understanding of events and objects.
  • To develop children’s use of common words and phrases relating to the passing of time.
  • To develop children’s knowledge and understanding of why people did things, why events happened and what happened as a result.
  • To enable children to identify differences between ways of life at different times.
  • To enable children to identify different ways in which the past is represented.
  • To support children to find out about the past from a range of sources of information including first hand visits, ICT and libraries, and to answer questions about the past.
  • To enable children to communicate their historical understanding in a variety of ways.

Implementation

Early Years

As part of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum the children experience the following:

  • A topic on ‘How we have changed since we were babies’ which leads to discussions on differences within themselves and difference for staff;
  • A topic on ‘Homes’ which develops the children’s understanding of different types of home and how objects within the home have changed over time;
  • Remembrance Day creates opportunities to develop an understanding of how and why we remember key events;
  • In the Reception year the children will visit a museum within the topic of ‘How do we know about dinosaurs?’;
  • Children are taught to look at different sources of evidence;
  • Children find similarities and difference and discuss causes and consequences.

Key Stage 1

The children are taught history as defined by the National Curriculum and this is enhanced by our creative topic based curriculum, thus providing the children with the following learning opportunities:

  • The children are taught about the lives of two contrasting artists;
  • Remembrance Day gives the children further opportunities to develop their understanding of how and why we remember key events;
  • The children are taught about the life of Florence Nightingale and the impact she had on the lives of others;
  • Using a topic about ‘Seaside Holidays’ the children are taught about key features of seaside holidays and how these have changes and developed over time;
  • The children discuss similarities and differences of seaside holidays;
  • During ‘Grandparent’s morning’ the children ask questions and find similarities and difference about their lives and those of their grandparents;
  • The children are taught about the Great Fire of London;
  • Within the topic of ‘Why did London burn?’ the children visit St Paul’s cathedral;
  • The children construct the past and sequence events;
  • The children are taught about the significant people from 1666, what they did and why;
  • The children are taught about the lives of two contrasting explorers eg Ernest Shackleton and Neil Armstrong;
  • The children develop their abilities in planning an enquiry;
  • The children are taught about a significant place in the local area (Pinewood studios) and how it has changed over time;
  • Themed weeks can introduce children to a number of particular moments or events in history.

Resources

There are a number of boxes containing artefacts for various topic areas in the resource cupboard.

The library has a number of books which describe significant historical events and people.

Equal Opportunities

We provide equity of opportunity throughout our curriculum to ensure that all pupils are able to both contribute to and develop from the learning experiences Iver Heath Infant School and nursery offers.

Inclusion and Diversity

In whole class teaching differentiation for all pupils occurs through:

  • discussion;
  • well-focused and challenging questioning;
  • praise of individual contributions;
  • high expectations encouraging pupils to elaborate, suggest, make observations, reflect and speculate;
  • thinking time.

In individual, paired or group work differentiation will take place by resources, variety of tasks, response and support.

More able children are identified by the class teacher and their learning is enhanced through targeted questioning and/or extending written output.

Children with special educational needs (SEN) and English as an additional language (EAL) are supported using a variety of support materials suggested by class teachers, SENCO, The Specialist Teaching Service and other outside agencies. For children with physical disabilities, we endeavour to secure appropriate apparatus in order for them to access the curriculum and we consult with relevant outside agencies.

We ensure that we show children positive images of the gender groups in society.  We celebrate the contribution that other ethnic groups and cultures make across the curriculum. 

We identify children who may be at a disadvantage when accessing education and we ensure that support is given to these children as appropriate. The school may on occasion also offer financial support to these children, for example in the form of a payment for a trip. For further information on the school’s use of pupil premium funding please see the ‘Pupil Premium Strategy Form’ available on the school website.

Environment

Throughout our curriculum we aim to highlight ways in which we can all contribute to keeping the local and global environment safe. This may include learning about ways in which the environment is being, and has been damaged, and discussions on how we can help to reduce our negative impact on nature and the world in which we all live.

Homework

Whilst the school believes that our young children work hard during the day and therefore need some relaxation time after school, we are always interested in research and information gathering that our children are often keen to report on to their classmates.

When children have experiences relating to historical learning they are encouraged to report back on their experiences and to discuss with their peers.

Health and Safety

All staff ensure that Health and Safety regulations are adhered to when using equipment such as interactive whiteboards and CD players etc.

Impact

  • Teachers assess pupils’ progress both formally and informally.
  • In Early Years each child is assessed in relation to criteria given by Development Matters statements from the Foundation Stage Curriculum and the Foundation Stage Profile. In Key Stage 1 the children are assessed in relation to the national Curriculum. These and our own Creative Curriculum form the basis for the individual year group History Learning Ladders.
  • We use our History Learning Ladders in each year group to assess what pupils have achieved and from this plan what they need to revisit.
  • Our Marking Policy reflects the importance we place on immediate assessment and feedback.

 

Monitoring and evaluation

The monitoring of the teaching and learning in history is carried out by the humanities team and the senior leadership team. This can be done via learning walks, book looks, data information and discussion with both children and teachers.

Reporting to Parents

We hold two parents’ consultation evenings during the year, one in the Autumn term and the other in the Spring term. Written reports are given to parents at the end of the Summer term and parents have the opportunity to discuss these with the class teacher if they choose.

We have an open-door policy to discuss strengths and strategies to support learning in all areas of the curriculum.

 The Governing Body

The Governors monitor the teaching and learning of history throughout the school via the governor responsible for the curriculum who reports to the Pupil Progress and Curriculum Committee.

 

During the COVID period we may not be able to access all the out of school learning that is planned into the curriculum.

This policy will be reviewed every three years or earlier if appropriate