At Mount Street Primary School, History is taught with the intent of building a strong Historical knowledge base for each pupil, which progresses from EYFS to Year 6. Starting with the National Curriculum and taking into account the contextual needs of our school community, children will use their increasing knowledge and understanding of history to question, enquire, compare and contrast an increasing range of historical times. We aim to develop a love, curiosity and deep understanding of why we (our local, national and worldwide community) are here, where we have come from and how we got to this point. 

Intent | What and why do we teach what we teach?

At Mount Street, we have carefully curated a history curriculum supported by United Learning which engages, inspires and challenges pupils to learn, know and remember more. Within the United Learning curriculum, there are six core principles, which are: entitlement, coherence, mastery, adaptability, representation, education with character.

The United Curriculum for History provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

• Entitlement - Regardless of their starting point, our history curriculum allows children to immerse themselves in history , exploring ideas in order to develop the confidence to excel in their understanding of how our world has changed. All children will learn about cultures  from across history through our religious,  history and geography curriculum.
• Coherence - Taking the National Curriculum as its starting point, our history curriculum is sequenced from Early Years to Key Stage 3 and beyond so that children gradually develop and build a coherent and chronological substantive knowledge of the history of the Britain and the wider world, selected to build pupils’ understanding of three vertical concepts. These vertical concepts provide both a concrete lens through which to study and contextualise history, as well as use small steps to help pupils gain a deep understanding of complex, abstract ideas: Quest for Knowledge, Power Empire and Democracy and Community and Family.
• Mastery - All children will be explicitly taught about the vertical concepts, enabling them to reflect upon the deeper, bigger and more abstract historical concepts which all our children gradually build throughout their primary education. Children will revisit, develop, make comparisons, interconnections and will be able to form judgements, enabling an increased breadth of understanding.
• Adaptability – Our history curriculum has been designed specifically to ensure that teachers are able to select and adapt resources. At Mount Street, we ensure that children are also fully immersed in our local context. Schools are encouraged to bring it to life for their pupils by supplementing it with people and places of historical significance from their local area. Including stretch and challenge opportunities and appropriate levels of scaffolding, ensures all our children are able to access our history curriculum and reach their full learning potential.
• Representation - The history curriculum at Mount Street provides children with the opportunity to learn about and explore cultures, values and beliefs from around the world. Our history curriculum develops aspects of character such as resilience, confidence and risk taking. All our children see themselves in our curriculum, and our history curriculum takes all children beyond their immediate experiences. We will explore the context in which key historical events happened, both locally and worldwide, and consider its wider impact always incorporating the experiences – positive and negative – of ethnic minorities in the history of Britain.
• Education with Character - We aim to build and maintain children’s confidence in their ability as historians of our modern world today. Through our curriculum, children are given opportunities to share, reflect and learn about each other’s experiences whilst recognising the things we have in common. Our curriculum is intended to spark curiosity and to nourish both the head and the heart.

Implementation | How and when do we teach what we teach?

At Mount Street, our pedagogical approach runs throughout all half-termly lessons from Early Years, through KS1 and KS2. All history lessons follow a consistent approach using Knowledge Organisers, Graphic Organisers, dual coded key vocabulary which is consistent throughout the school, retrieval questions, WM, HM, SM slides using small steps to avoid cognitive overload.

Starting in the school year 24/25, it was agreed that some historical civilisations would be condensed in some years to allow ‘lost learning’ by changing the curriculum to the UL roadmap from our previous curriculum map. This ensures that children will have the opportunity to learn about civilisations that they would have missed out on. The creation of roadmaps for the next three years allow children to experience all agreed civilisations.

As the Learning Academy Trust, it was agreed that World War II would continue to be included in Year 6, as this is local history. By using condensed sequences of lessons at Mount Street, World War II will continue to be taught within Year 6. These lessons were created by some history leads, in the same style as the UL based lessons, so that consistency happened.

A coherent and chronological substantive knowledge of the history of the Britain and the wider world, has been carefully selected to build our children’s understanding of three vertical concepts. These vertical concepts provide both a concrete lens through which to study and contextualise history, as well as use small steps to help pupils gain a deep understanding of complex, abstract ideas. 

These 3 vertical concepts are:

• Quest for knowledge

How do people understand the world around them? What is believed; what is known; what scientific and technological developments are made at the time? How is knowledge stored and shared? What shapes people’s views about the world?

• Power, empire and democracy

Who holds power, and what does this mean for different people in the civilisations? How is power wielded and legitimised? How are people’s rights different in different historical contexts?

• Community and family

What is life like for people in different societies? How are these societies structured? How are family and community roles and relationships different in different historical contexts?

Our three key vertical concepts are then further broken down into the historical concepts of: Democracy and Government,  Historical Significance, Similarities and Differences, Change and Continuity, Cause and Consequence, and Evidence.  Our intent is to inspire a genuine interest for our children in history, alongside a real sense of curiosity about the past, and how the world has changed. We ensure that children have opportunities to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, but also to be taken beyond their own experiences. At Mount Street, our history curriculum teaches children about civilisations from across the world, and always incorporates the experiences – positive and negative – of ethnic minorities in the history of Britain.

Starting in EYFS, the children will begin to learn the concept of time and how things have changed not only within their living memory, but starting to use a range of sources (stories, photographs etc) to understand changes occurring before their lifetime provides an excitement for history, which inspires a curiosity to learn more about the past.  These historical foundations are then built upon as children progress through the key stages, ensuring they have a comprehensive understanding of taught significant events beyond living memory.

In KS1, the children start to learn about significant historical events, people and places within their own locality, then looking nationally or globally as they study the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight or events commemorated through festivals or anniversaries. In addition in KS1, the children will learn about the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

Aligning to the National Curriculum, in KS2, our children again study and compare significant historical events, people and places locally, nationally and globally. At Mount Street, the children will continue to build upon prior learning, considering and comparing the lives of significant individuals to aspects of life in other periods. 

Having a solid foundation and grounding in core disciplinary and procedural knowledge, and the ability to approach challenging, historically-valid questions, ensures our children have the ability to learn how to think, read and write like a historian.

At Mount Street, our history curriculum has three strands:  substantive knowledge, disciplinary knowledge (and procedural knowledge) alongside our key vertical concepts.

       Substantive Knowledge

• By substantive knowledge we mean the core historical facts of a particular period or topic, for example key dates, individuals or events specific to a unit.

Disciplinary Knowledge (and Procedural Knowledge)

• Disciplinary knowledge refers to how historians carry out their discipline in order to maintain and add to the subject’s canon. Children learn what it means to be a historian, for example in areas such as Historical Significance or Cause and Consequence, for example that Changes can take place gradually (evolution) or very rapidly and completely (revolution).
• Procedural knowledge refers to things that historians need to know how to do. An example might be reading a timeline or using vocabulary like decade or century. We have organised these alongside disciplinary knowledge as both are threaded through our curriculum in a similar way.

Personalisation and SEND

At Mount Street we strive for all children to understand historical concepts taught. Therefore we ensure that our children are not disadvantaged by language or literacy  barriers by using a consistent dual coding approach throughout the  school which enables children to understand the key vocabulary in each lesson. Teachers at Mount Street make sure that work is scaffolded for our disadvantaged or SEND children and is differentiated to others in the classroom. This could include children having word banks to support writing, images to help understand concepts, and support from peers by working in mixed ability groups.

Teachers at Mount Street also want to extend historical thinking among the greater depth children and this is explored by the children writing in depth about the area of history and by diving deeper into why something happened in the past.

History Cultural Capital | What does this look like at MS?

Many of our children lack opportunities and experiences at home. Therefore, we aim to improve their cultural capital through:

• Visits to the museum (The Box) and partaking in any free workshops / pilot workshops
• Opportunities at University of Plymouth
• Local walks to recognise historical evidence to support learning
• Kents Cavern for Year 3 children to understand their topic
• Blast from the Past company to enhance many of our year groups historical topics such as Great Fire of London, Neil Armstrong, Romans and Vikings.

Impact | How do we assess the impact of what we teach via pupil outcomes?

The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress.

How do we assess the impact of what we teach via pupil outcomes?

Formative assessment is prioritised and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum. In general, this is done through:

• Questioning in lessons. Teachers check understanding so they can fill gaps and address misconceptions as required.
• Pupil conferencing with books. Subject leads and SLT talk to pupils about what they have learnt – both substantive and disciplinary knowledge – and how this connects to the vertical concepts that they have been developing in previous years and other subjects. For example, pupils in Year 4 may be asked to talk about how Ancient Maya city-states were similar and different to Ancient Greek city-states, and how their belief systems compared with those of other civilisations.
• Start of Unit quizzes at the start of each unit. These assess pupils’ understanding of the prior knowledge that is required to access the new content in the unit. These are used to identify gaps to be filled prior to teaching the new unit. For example, in a unit about the Roman Empire, pupils need to recall knowledge about the Ancient Greek gods and apply this to new knowledge about religion in Rome. This knowledge is assessed in the Pre-Learning Quiz, and teachers can plan to fill any identified gaps.
• End of Unit quizzes at the end of each unit. These give teachers an understanding of the knowledge that pupils can recall at the end of the unit, and can be used to identify any remaining gaps to be filled. These are generally simple recall questions, such as key features of belief systems in prehistoric Britain, or some of the reasons why people, places and events may be seen as significant.
• By using Graphic Organisers, children at Mount Street should be able to ‘tell the story’ of the topic studied. These allow the children to hook their learning onto a key word and image and build the story as their learning take places.

Each year we develop the children's conceptual knowledge and understanding through 'Big Ideas' which develop both in depth and knowledge as the children progress through the school.

Our aim is that children as they develop can look to their own future with a strong foundation of knowledge and historical learning allowing them to take a responsible and active role in shaping, not only their local community, but communities regionally, nationally and globally if they wish.