History

At Elm Academy we believe that through an engaging, diverse and high-quality history curriculum, not only do pupils develop an understanding of their place in the world but also understand how the past has shaped the world today. We aim for our history curriculum to challenge pupils to identify and make sense of ‘striking similarities and vast differences in human experiences across time and place’*. Through a balance of substantive and disciplinary knowledge, we want out pupils to be able to confidently learn how historians construct accounts about the past whilst building on or challenging the research of others. Elm Academy’s history curriculum is underpinned by key historical concepts;

• chronological knowledge & understanding
• historical enquiry
• historical interpretation
• continuity & change
• cause & consequence
• similarity & difference
• significant events & people. 

Pupils learn and develop skills as they progress through our curriculum e.g. enquiry, hypothesis & analysis, which help deepen their substantive and disciplinary knowledge. They also learn about a range of field of historical enquiry e.g. social, economic and cultural history.

To ensure that pupils gain a solid understanding of new material, we ensure that key concepts repeat throughout our curriculum, with pupils applying their knowledge of these to different contexts. We also ensure that key areas e.g. invasion/trade are revisited throughout Key Stage 2 for pupils to build their knowledge progressively as we understand that specific examples (alongside repetition of key concepts) can make the unfamiliar elements of new material, more memorable. 

Our history curriculum for Key Stage 2 is planned in chronological order as we understand that securing knowledge of an overview of the past can help pupils to develop their knowledge into sequential narratives which therefore makes the learning more memorable for them, supporting pupils to know more and remember more. Pupils with a strong mental timeline are able to organise and make links to prior learning, creating a complex schema and giving their knowledge coherence. 

We understand that pupils make progress in history through progressively building their knowledge of the past, and of how historians study the past and construct accounts. To ensure there are no gaps in the sequence of this knowledge progressing, we assess pupil understanding each half term which assesses substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Teachers then record these assessments on our online tracking system, DC Pro. This ensures that any gaps are followed up on through starters and recaps to support pupils with building a strong schema of understanding across our history curriculum.

Enrichment for history is carefully mapped out across the school to ensure it is purposeful and supports learning intentions. It includes workshops, visits to museums & key historical landmarks and engaging class-based activities e.g. WW2 Street Party. The meticulously planned out enrichment of history aims to not only to support the development of pupils’ subject knowledge but also to foster a love of the subject. 

*Research Review Series, History, July 2021

We aim to offer as many real life experiences as possible to support and enhance our history curriculum. This can include educational visits, artefacts and visitors.

As an Academy, we unpicked key historical concepts, along with key skills that the pupils need to understand to become confident historians and ensured they were carefully mapped out against our Medium Term Plans

Elm’s History Timeline: