History…The Albourne Way

 

INTENT

Everything we do at Albourne Church of England School is underpinned by our vision, The Albourne Way – living life to the full. Children in our school will achieve highly because our expectations for pupil outcomes are ambitious.

‘History… The Albourne Way’ envisions a history curriculum that sparks curiosity, promotes critical thinking, and cultivates a deep understanding of the past. It is our intent to empower young learners to become informed global citizens who appreciate the rich tapestry of human experience and understand the interconnectedness of events, societies, and cultures throughout time.

 

Core historical concepts such as cause and consequence are central, providing relevance to the modern world. Our curriculum aims to ignite curiosity, cultivate critical thinking, and instil a deep appreciation for human history, preparing students to be engaged citizens in an interconnected world and live their life to the full.

 

IMPLEMENTATION

 

We lead an enquiry-lead approach to our history curriculum as our pupils not only build their substantive knowledge and understanding, but become increasingly adept at disciplinary thinking, conceptual understanding and the use of specialised vocabulary and technical terms. In order to do this, as a school we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high-quality history curriculum. This is implemented through:

• An early introduction to understanding the world in a rich immersion into history in our early year’s curriculum.

• A vast range of enquiries into different time periods from the Stone Age to World War II, with in depth studies on ancient civilisations and time periods in KS2. This enables pupils to develop their chronological awareness of themes and issues over more extended periods of time.

• A range of skills being taught to encourage our children to think like historians; by teaching them to analyse and evaluate sources and evidence.

• Teaching subject concepts that are built upon each year throughout their journey at Albourne, so they learn how to think and work like historians.

• Learning activities are very varied to ensure that all pupils have opportunities to demonstrate their strengths.

• The MTPs for each enquiry in History highlight both the objectives and anticipated outcomes of the investigation – the end points of learning.

• Our curriculum for EYFS – Year 6 provision is made for regular and high quality visits which we recognise as a core element of our pupils’ statutory entitlement in History. These visits provide opportunities to develop and consolidate skills and concepts introduced in the classroom and allow pupils to extend their understanding through investigating History in the ‘real world.’  

• When assessing our pupils, evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources to inform the process including interaction with pupils during discussions and related questioning, day to day observations, presentation and communication of data collected during visits and writing in different genres. We do not make summative judgements about individual pieces of pupil work, but rather use continuous formative assessments to build an emerging picture of what the pupil knows and understands about our overall enquiry into the subject.

 

IMPACT

 

Our inclusive, immersive, and aspirational history curriculum will prepare our pupils for their interaction with the modern world and educate them on their place in history. Not only will our pupils will have progressed their substantive knowledge and know their ‘facts’ about their history. But our integration of disciplinary thinking will expand their view on the world with their ability to apply skills of analysis, evaluation and empathy across their evolution in our modern-day society.