Our Intent
Studying history helps to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of how events in the past made things the way they are today. Through teaching history, we aim to inspire a curiosity to know about the past locally, nationally and globally.
Our history curriculum enables children to understand how the world we experience today has changed over time and is shaped by significant people, periods and events. We aim to develop children who are interested in and inquisitive about the past, who make connections with people and events that have occurred in different places and times in history.
We believe it is important to teach our children about local people, places and events that have been significant in history as Manchester has been a place of great innovation and inspiration historically. We want to encourage the development of their own perspectives about history whilst being able to understand the perspectives of different groups in society at the time of the events studied.
We aim to use a wide variety of sources so that children at Barlow Hall learn how our understanding of things that have happened in the past is achieved through analysis and interpretation of primary and secondary sources. Through studying history, the children at Barlow Hall will gain an understanding of and value diversity, culture and rights.
Our Implementation
The ambitious history curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning. It has been designed to ensure that units, lessons and tasks deliver our curriculum intention. Our curriculum is split into three strands:
-Struggle for Power, Control and Equality (focusing on struggles for racial, gender and suffrage and the roles of monarchy and parliament across different time periods of British history)
-Life in Britain through the Ages (focusing on the history of Britain through different periods)
-Achievement and Innovation (focusing on the legacies of significant events, people and civilisations locally, nationally and globally)
Our history curriculum has our thinking concepts: Analyse and Interpret; Continuity and Change;, Similarities and Differences; Perspectives; Inter-Relationships and Cause and Effect at its core.
Children at Barlow Hall study history every term. Our curriculum planning outlines the intended essential knowledge and associated thinking concepts for each history unit taught across the school. The design and sequencing of our curriculum aims to build meaningful schemata for our children by creating connections and links within and across year groups, revisiting key concepts and progressively building upon previously acquired knowledge and skills within the subject. Within history units, lessons and tasks build upon one another to develop learning that is meaningful and purposeful. Retrieval is embedded in our planning and delivery to enable children to know and remember more in history.
Our Impact
By the end of Key Stage 2, children at Barlow Hall will have had the opportunities to develop a sound understanding of the chronology, historical significance and key elements of society in the periods studied and be able to discuss significant people and events within them. They will be able to develop their own lines of historical enquiry through questioning and be able to use a wide variety of source materials to develop their critical thinking, interpretation skills and learn about the past. They will also be able to discuss the impact of significant events, people and periods through ‘cause and effect’.
We want to foster an enjoyment and interest in history at Barlow Hall and this is evident in the way our children engage with our curriculum in lessons and the way they share their knowledge and work during pupil voice activities.. The knowledge and skills the children develop and the progress they make is evidenced in the depth and detail of pupil discussion during such activities and is supported in the evidence gained in book scrutinies carried out across the year.
By the end of Key Stage 2, children at Barlow Hall have a good grasp of the concept of chronology and can apply this within and across time periods studied. They also understand the historical significance of a wide range of, places, communities and events and are able to discuss key aspects of society in the historical periods studied. They are able to enquire, use analysis and interpretation skills with a wide range of source materials.
Children at Barlow Hall are able to give their own perspective about historical periods and people and understand that other perspectives are possible. They know about significant events and people in the history of Manchester. They are able to make links within and across time periods studied. They have an appreciation for how people and events have shaped the course of history and how such impact and influence can be seen in the world today.
