History at Hampden Gurney
‘Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ – George Santayana
At Hampden Gurney all students experience a rich tapestry of historical enquiry. History is taught within an environment which encourages pupils to become resourceful in their approach to work, and to build on basic skills as they progress through the various units and projects offered.
All classes capitalise on our fantastic location and organise excursions to some of the amazing historical locations in and around London. Some classes arrange visiting specialists who operate themed events within the school, bringing history to life.
Year 4 – Saxon Village Trip
Intent:
At Hampden Gurney, History education should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aim is to ensure every child understands the importance of history and how it has helped to shape our society today. Children at Hampden Gurney are provided with a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum; ensuring the progressive development of historical concepts, knowledge and skills and most importantly a love for History. Staff aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about History that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Our high-quality and motivational History education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
The aims of teaching history in our school are:
- To inspire pupils’ curiosity to discover more about the past and to develop an understanding that enables them to enjoy all that history has to offer;
- To enable children to know about significant events in British history and to appreciate how things have changed over time;
- To develop a sense of chronology;
- To know and understand how the British system of democratic government has developed and, in so doing, to contribute to a child’s citizenship education;
- To understand how Britain is part of a wider European culture and to study some aspects of European history;
- To have some knowledge and understanding of historical development in the wider world;
- To help children understand society and their place within it, so that they develop a sense of their cultural heritage;
- To develop in children the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation, debate, interpretation, problem solving and presentation.
Implementation:
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in history, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the whole school. History is taught as part of a termly topic, focusing on knowledge and skills stated in the National Curriculum. At Hampden Gurney, we ensure that History has the same importance given to it as the core subjects, as we feel this is important in enabling all children to gain ‘real-life’ experiences.
The History curriculum at Hampden Gurney has been carefully arranged to provide children with opportunities to study History meaningful to them. We are very fortunate to be placed within the heart of London and therefore topics that reflect the city have been woven throughout the curriculum map. Where possible historical topics are taught in chronological order to give children a deeper understanding of time and decisions throughout history.
Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of knowledge and skills document. Teachers can use this document to plan their history lessons suitable to their class’s interests and what they want to learn. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group.
When teaching history the teachers should follow the children’s interests to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. History teaching focuses on enabling children to think as critically. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement.
History provides excellent opportunities to enhance the learning of more able pupils through the investigations, analysing sources and writing extending pieces. Children showing extensive aptitude in history will be placed on our schools gifted and talented register. These children will be selected for appropriate enrichment opportunities throughout the year.
At Hampden Gurney, we provide a variety of opportunities for history learning inside and outside the classroom. Every class has a History trip scheduled at least once a year with the opportunity for more should it be appropriate. Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional history learning outside the classroom. At Hampden Gurney, the children have had many opportunities to experience history on educational visits.
Every year, we have a ‘Humanities Enrichment Day’ where the subject leader plans fun, engaging activities linked to History and Geography for the children to complete. These days are planned to kick-start a whole school initiative for lifelong learning within the subjects, rather than a ‘one day’ activity. These activities should be guided by the children’s interests in particular topics and social issues or topics of debate.
Impact:
Our history curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills and discreet vocabulary progression also form part of the units of work.
Pupils of all ages should understand how past events can be researched. Older pupils may be able to explain concepts such as the reliability of or bias in historical evidence, and take these into account when considering historical data. By doing so, they can become not just passive recipients of factual information, but enquiring and challenging thinkers who appreciate that there is much we can learn from the past, and have the skills and the passion for doing so in the future.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum.
- Marking of written work in books.
From this, children by the end of Year 6 will be have an awareness of historical, social and ethnic aspects of the local environment and of the world, enabling them to develop a sense of identity and an understanding of other cultures’ pasts. This will ensure children are prepared for adult life in a democratic society.
Year 1 – Comparing our toys to those in the past