Curriculum Statement

Curriculum Statement

At St. Katherine’s Church of England Primary School, the basic principle behind teaching and learning in History is to effect a change to long-term memory. We aim to ensure that our pupils experience a wide breadth of study and, by the end of each key stage, acquire an ambitious body of skills and knowledge.

Intent

Our school’s chosen Curriculum Drivers - SPIRITUALITY, DIVERSITY, ENVIRONMENT and POSSIBILITIES - are derived from the background and context of our school and its pupils and will shape our curriculum breadth. They will ensure we provide ambitious and appropriate curriculum opportunities or POSSIBILITIES in History. Our belief in the importance of Cultural Capital will give our pupils the vital background knowledge needed to be informed members of our community with a commitment to a belief in both Christian and British values, thus promoting and embedding the dual drivers of SPIRITUALITY and DIVERSITY. The History curriculum will distinguish between subject topics and threshold concepts, the latter aiming to tie together the subject topics in a meaningful way. These threshold concepts or BIG IDEAS, for example, the understanding of chronology or the investigation and interpretation of evidence, will be explored in all subject topics, allowing the pupils to return to the same concepts repeatedly in order to build a better understanding of them. For each of the threshold concepts, we intend there to be three milestones which will ensure progression through the key stages. The teaching of History will acknowledge the cognitive science that tells us the importance of mastering the basics to allow children time to develop greater understanding and become creative thinkers. The intent is for pupils to display mastery or greater depth by the end of each milestone (a period of two years of study).

Implementation

Our curriculum will be taught through the implementation of the following principles of teaching and learning: spaced repetition, interleaving and retrieval or previous learned content as, we believe, these provide effective learning, aid long-tern retention and increase storage and retrieval strength. Both the local and national ENVIRONMENTS will be explored and investigated through, for example, local history studies and those POSSIBILITIES provided for cultural and wider historical educational experiences (trips out and visitors and workshops in) in all year groups.

Impact

This is judged by looking at the change to long-term memory and as teachers of History, we will continuously assess whether our practices are appropriate, related to our goals and likely to produce results in the end-term. We will use Proof of Progress tasks, assess pupils’ work over a period of time and use observations to see if teaching style matches expectations