INTENT

At Ambler, we have developed a rich history curriculum tailored to our pupils and our community. Through studying history, we want them to feel empowered to affect change and work towards a better future. 

From the early years to Year 6, they develop a sense of history that starts with their own personal story and grows to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of British and global history. They learn to evaluate the reliability of sources and understand the cause and effect of major historical events. As they go up through the school, they learn how to use evidence to communicate clearly their views of the past, including the rights and wrongs of episodes studied. We ask them to make connections between time periods studied, in order to embed a chronologically secure narrative for how civilisations developed and influenced one another. Above all, we want children to love history and to be curious about the past. This will foster a lifelong love of learning, helping them to remember more and achieve more.

IMPLEMENTATION

What does this look in practice?

Our curriculum is mapped out to enable an immersion into the time period being studied. Core texts in reading lessons and text types in Literacy units will complement the history being taught. This exposes the children to more background knowledge in the area, giving them a better grounding in the contextual elements of the period.

We include units specifically on black history, partly as a reflection of our school community, and partly to teach our children how elements of the past can be underrepresented or even misrepresented for a variety of reasons. To increase the relevance to our children - with help with the equality and diversity lead - these units have been geared towards black, British figures. Non-statutory periods and events studied include Suffragism, crime and punishment and the Victorian period. These have been selected and planned carefully to provide insight into inequalities and injustices that were prevalent in the past, how they were combatted and how change was ultimately affected. Through this, we want our children to feel inspired and empowered as change makers.

Lessons are often hands on, making use of ‘artefacts’ from Islington Education Library Service. Children learn to classify types of historical sources and eventually to  interrogate their reliability. We further increase the ‘wow’ factor of history units through ‘launch days’ that look to front load a lot of the contextual knowledge in order to free up the rest of the unit for more skills-based lessons. A launch day may involve dressing up, a workshop, role-play or a trip. It excites, engages and sparks curiosity in the children for the upcoming learning and again helps them to remember more. We use our NowPressPlay resource to give classes an immersive, audio adventure (through bluetooth headphones) that is rich with key knowledge about the time period.  

IMPACT

As a result of our rich history curriculum, consistent delivery and focus on historical enquiry skills, our children leave Ambler as critical thinkers who have a secure knowledge of the past. They feel empowered to affect change in the world through the careful selection, sequencing and tailoring of our units and remember what they have been taught through a variety of teaching techniques - not least, the fun, immersive launch days, workshops and trips.

As one Year 3 child put it, “History intrigues me and makes me want to learn and find out more. It links to my own experiences.” Or as a Year 6 student explained, “It’s inspiring to think I could do something special that could be learnt about!”