Intent: Knowledge, skills & the National Curriculum

Challenging, exciting, enjoyable and relevant

Our History curriculum is taught discretely through specific concepts and themes, which is underpinned by the accelerated learning approach to teaching and learning.

The key concepts, principles and themes have been developed from the National Curriculum into a range of progressive knowledge and skills through which the children are helped to grow and develop to succeed in 21st century Britain. This progressive curriculum allows a purposeful way of teaching and learning, enabling us to provide a more meaningful and sequential approach to the schema for History.

Pupils at Summer Lane make progress in history through building their knowledge of the past, and of how historians study the past and construct accounts. Teaching supports pupil progress by embedding frameworks of content and concepts that enable pupils to access future material. Abstract concepts are best learned through meaningful examples and repeated encounters in different contexts.

An example of this is ‘substantive’ concepts. Planned, systematic encounters with substantive concepts in specific and varied contexts support pupils’ progress. Many of these concepts feature regularly throughout the study of history in a range of contexts. As a result, they are particularly important to pupils’ understanding of new material.

At Summer Lane, we have collated various substantive concepts into categories to consider when planning historical topics. Teachers might cover a range of key concepts during the study of a civilisation or era and some of these will be revisited in children’s later studies to ensure progression in history.

Chronological knowledge is embedded throughout the implementation of history at Summer Lane. Understanding the broad characteristics of historical periods gives context to what pupils learn and increases pupils’ familiarity with new material. Securing an overview knowledge of the past supports our children to develop this knowledge into coherent narratives that are more memorable for them.

The History curriculum we offer is designed to meet the needs of all our pupils. It is rich, varied, imaginative and ambitious and meets the needs of individual learners by can easily be adapted for pupils with additional needs.

The intent of our History curriculum is to provide pupils with a rich, engaging and comprehensive understanding of the past that shapes our present and future. Our approach aligns with the national curriculum's aim to ensure all pupils develop a coherent, chronological narrative of British history from the earliest times to the present, while also exploring world history. We emphasise three key foci: British History, to foster a deep appreciation of our national heritage; Modern and Ancient History, to provide a broad temporal perspective; and Diversity in History, to appreciate the complexity and variety of human societies and developments.

Through carefully planned sequences of learning, we aim to develop lasting knowledge and skills that allow children to make sense of the present as well as the past. Our curriculum is dynamic and adjusted to meet the needs of our learners, with a focus on creating a knowledge-rich environment that gives all pupils a shared understanding of both British and world history. By studying a range of historical periods and cultures, including significant time devoted to modern and diverse historical topics, we strive to help pupils appreciate the diversity of human experiences and develop critical thinking skills essential for understanding our complex world.

Implementation: Accelerated Learning Cycle

Building progressively on taught skills

At Summer Lane, within our curriculum subject drivers, lessons of history will be taught discretely to ensure depth and rigour in historical concepts and context. The History curriculum is rich and varied and provides our pupils with the skills required for life in the 21st Century.

The Accelerated Learning Cycle, based on the work of Alastair Smith, is applied in all lessons. It stems from the idea of a supportive and challenging learning environment. The cycle has active engagement through multi- sensory learning, encourages the demonstrating understanding of learning in a variety of ways and the consolidation of knowing.

Chronological knowledge is embedded throughout the implementation of history at Summer Lane. Understanding the broad characteristics of historical periods gives context to what pupils learn and increases pupils’ familiarity with new material. Securing overview knowledge of the past supports our children to develop this knowledge into coherent narratives that are more memorable for them.

A gather, skills, apply approach to planning and delivery of lessons is taken across school to ensure children develop a deep understanding of specific skills and are able to apply these in a range of situations.

Our curriculum is designed with a core focus on retrieval practice, recognising its pivotal role in helping students know more and remember more. This intent is actualised through a dual approach: integrated retrieval within individual lessons and a structured, subject retrieval practice rota. In-session retrieval activities are carefully crafted to reinforce key concepts and knowledge, promoting immediate recall and application. Complementing this, our weekly retrieval practice rota systematically revisits content across various subjects, ensuring spaced repetition and interleaving of crucial information. This comprehensive strategy aims to strengthen neural connections, facilitate the transfer of knowledge to long-term memory and build increasingly complex mental models. By embedding retrieval practice as a fundamental aspect of our curriculum, we strive to enhance our pupils' ability to retain, recall and apply their learning effectively, thereby fostering deeper understanding and more robust academic progress.

Our curriculum is ambitious for all pupils, including those children with SEND. Curriculum designers and teachers have high expectations of what SEND pupils can achieve and the curriculum is not diluted or unnecessarily reduced for SEND pupils. Every pupil is different and so what works for each pupil varies. Pupil’s individual needs are considered and adaptations are planned to ensure the success of pupils in all subjects.

The way that our curriculum is designed ensures that chunks of learning are sequenced in a coherent way to enable all pupils, including those with SEND, to build on prior knowledge. Too much information at once can be a barrier to learning which is one of the reason why we have chosen half termly curriculum drivers.

Where pupils are identified with having complex needs, it may be appropriate to provide a personalised curriculum which will be based on individual needs and will retain ambition for the pupil.

Where working memory is an issue for pupils, including those with SEND, we look to reduce extraneous load as much as possible as well as identifying key information when teaching. This helps pupils to pay attention to the content which they are expected to learn. Adaptations to support individual pupils will be recorded on personal school support plans.

Pupils specific needs determine the types of adaptations which are required. These adaptations are in how the subject is taught rather than the content pupils are expected to learn. Where appropriate, learning will be chunked into smaller steps and pre learning and consolidation time in planned in to support need. Time is also planned to ensure pupils with SEND are pre taught vocabulary to support their understanding. Adaptations may include supporting pupils to pay attention to key aspects as well as reducing excessive or unhelpful demands on working memory.

Impact: Assessment

Knowing more and remembering more

Formative assessment is ongoing throughout each lesson. It judges progress and enables teachers to make flexible adaptions to their planned teaching.

Through this regular ongoing assessment, tasks are matched to the ability of each child through adapted activities and including adult support, providing a level of challenge that is stimulating for pupils and questioning skills.

Insights is used as a summative assessment to assess foundation subjects. Alongside the analysis of data from insights, the curriculum document for history is regularly reviewed to identify any gaps or misconceptions to be addressed. This allows children to acquire complex skills that depends on the fundamentals of their prior knowledge in a well-designed curriculum sequence.

Our progressive curriculum