The history curriculum at Shinfield St Mary’s is planned in line with the knowledge and skills outlined in the 2014 National Curriculum for KS2. The curriculum is led and overseen by the History leader. The History leader will ensure a regular programme of monitoring and evaluation, and the celebration of good practice informs our commitment to improving teaching and learning History at Shinfield St Mary’s Junior School.

  The teaching, learning and sequencing of our history curriculum for 2022-2023 is shown in the overview below:

	Autumn Term	Spring Term	Summer Term
Year 3	Stone Age to Iron Age	Ancient Egypt
Year 4	Roman Britain
Year 5	Anglo-Saxons and Vikings	The Second World War/ Local History
Year 6		Victorian Britain	Ancient Greece	The Kingdom of Benin

A blocked curriculum approach has been implemented to ensure coverage of knowledge and progression in skills and concepts. Cross-curricular links are made with other subjects where possible.

The history curriculum is planned in chronological order to allow children to build an image of History over time and to use their knowledge of previous periods, events and people to better understand current learning.

The progression of knowledge and skills are set out in order to build and develop the following concepts:

1. Chronological understanding
2. Significance
3. Similarity and difference
4. Cause and consequence
5. Continuity and change
6. Enquiry
7. Interpretation

Lessons will develop long-term memory by allowing for repetition of learning within the year and across years.

The use of Medium-Term Plans and Knowledge Organisers support teachers in sequencing learning, and are actively used by children as an aide-memoire during lessons and to show expectations by the end of the unit.

Resources

A wide-ranging collection of primary and secondary sources of evidence including artefacts is used in the teaching and learning of history. These are organised in topic boxes and stored centrally to support teachers to plan and deliver engaging and stimulating lessons.  Extensive use is made of a variety of on-line resources such as those from the ‘Historical Association’ and ‘Key Stage History’ to further support learning.

Enrichment 

Educational visits and visitors are an integral part of the curriculum at Shinfield St Mary’s Junior School. They help bring history ‘alive’ and give real substance and relevance to classroom learning. Local historical sites provide a rich resource and access to their expertise has provided valuable insight to understanding history at the local level and making links to our past. Year 3 undertake a visit to ‘Butser Ancient Farm’ to support pupils’ learning about the changes from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Year 4 benefit from the visit of a Roman soldier to learn about how life changed in Roman Britain. Ufton Court enables our Year 5 pupils to learn about life in Anglo-Saxon and Viking times.