Curriculum Information
History Curriculum: Rationale
At Woodcroft we aim to provide a high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
We follow the History programme of study outlined in the National curriculum Computing Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2, supported within the framework provided by The Essentials Curriculum. The aim of our curriculum is to ensure all pupils:
- know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
- know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
- gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
- understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
- understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constru
Curriculum Scope and Breadth
The scope and breadth of the curriculum at Woodcroft is shaped by our curriculum drivers, cultural capital, National Curriculum subjects and our ambition for students to study the best of what has been thought and said by many generations of academics and scholars.
National Curriculum coverage are divided into three Phases*. We call these phases Milestones
*Early Years Foundation Stage is treated as a separate milestone and has its own curriculum. Transition from Reception to Year 1 has been carefully planned.
We distinguish between subject units (topics of study) and threshold concepts.
- Subject units are the specific aspects of knowledge that are studied
- Threshold concepts are overarching themes that ttie together the breadth of subject knowledge. The same concepts are explored in a wide variety of different topics throughout each milestone.. Pupils will return to the same concepts over and over; gradually deepening understanding the subject.
Threshold Concepts in History
We have identified four overarching themes for History:
- Investigate and Interpret The Past
This concept involves recognising that our understanding of the past comes from an
interpretation of the available evidence.
- Build an overview of world history
This concept involves an appreciation of the characteristic features of the past and
that these features are similar and different across time periods, and an understanding that life is different for different
- Understand Chronology
This concept involves an understanding of how to chart the passing of time and how some
aspects of history happened at similar times in different places
- Communicate Historically
This concept involves using historical vocabulary and techniques to convey information
about the past
Knowledge Categories (Disciplinary Concepts)
Our ‘Threshold Concepts’ are then further developed into ten disciplinary concepts. These are categories of knowledge that underpin every unit of work.
- Settlement
- Beliefs
- Culture and Pastimes
- Location
- Main Events
- Food and Farming
- Travel and Exploration
- Conflict
- Society
- Artefacts
Substantive Concepts
By organising the subject knowledge in this way we are able to identify the core substantive concepts for each curriculum. Substantive concepts are repeated in multiple units throughout each milestone to broaden and deepen our understanding of geography.
| Investigate and Interpret The Past
Sources |
Understand Chronology | Communicate Historically |
| Artefacts and Sources
• tools • ornaments • household items • coins • diaries • historical accounts • newspaper reports. |
Main Events
• key ‘stories’ and events • dates and durations • key figures • changes and continuity achievements and legacies • significant events that happened elsewhere at the same or a similar time |
Vocabulary
Identified for each unit |
| Build an overview of world history | ||
| Settlements
• homes (including the types of materials used and construction techniques) • sanitation • heating • public facilities (e.g. libraries, bath houses) • monuments and memorials • gathering places (e.g. citadels, amphitheatres, town squares) • the nature of a settlement (e.g. villages, towns, cities) • defences • important features (e.g. proximity to a river or sea port). |
Beliefs
• pagan practices • organised religions • key events (e.g. sacrifice) • ideologies • symbols. |
Culture and pastimes
• artworks • artists and artisans • jewellery • architecture and architects • games • sports • plays and theatre • music and instruments • great thinkers and big ideas (e.g. the Enlightenment) • stories and books. |
| Location
• modern geographical locations (e.g. Iran) • historical geographical locations (e.g. Mesopotamia) • multiple locations, including the associated terminology (e.g. empire, commonwealth, union) • movement and its associated terminology (e.g. migration, immigration, invasion, exploration, conquest). |
Food and Farming
• main food groups (e.g. grains, fish) • popular foods and dishes • methods of collection (e.g. hunter-gatherers, farming) • important technological breakthroughs (e.g. plough – for cultivating land, shaduf – for irrigation) • use of animals • trade in foods and spices. |
Travel and Exploration
• types of transport and how they were powered (e.g. foot and animals) • technological advancements and their pioneers • breakthrough events (e.g. the Moon landings) • reasons for travel (e.g. to explore, conquer, trade, survive) • trade routes • holidays and how they have changed because of transport. |
| Conflict
• historic events • reasons for conflict (e.g. invasions) • weapons • defences • resistance • tactics • types of conflict (e.g. battles, wars) • resolutions to conflicts. |
Society
• life for different sections of society (e.g. rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, urban and rural) • education • crime and punishment • health and medicine • clothing • social organisation (e.g. nation states, systems of government). |
|
Curriculum Progression and Assessment
We identify specific categories of knowledge that enable pupils to express their understanding of the substantive concepts. Teachers plan learning sequences to cover each of these knowledge categories, making each subject distinct.
Within each Milestone, pupils progress in their learning through three cognitive domains from basic to advancing and then deep understanding. The goal for pupils is to display sustained mastery at the ‘advancing’ stage of understanding by the end of each milestone. The most able pupils will be able to demonstrate a greater depth of understanding at the ‘deep’ stage. The time-scale for sustained mastery and greater depth is two years of study within each milestone phase.
A fundamental aspect of our curriculum are planned Proof of Progression assessment tasks. These are based on learning expectations of a milestone in each cognitive domains from basic to deep. Teachers are able to make comparative assessments of pupil progress based on how pupils independently apply their learning to these tasks at the end of each unit.
Knowledge Webs and The Tree House
Knowledge webs are published on the Treehouse. The Treehouse is our virtual learning environment. They cover the essential knowledge and vocabulary that children should learn.
Curriculum Resources and Core Curriculum Texts
At Woodcroft we utilise a range of different teaching resources to support our curriculum. As part of every History unit there is an identified core curriculum text.
How leaning sequenced?
Teachers plan a block learning sequence (BLS) for each unit by first considering the intended outcomes. This outlines what pupils need to know (or be able to do) at the end of the units to demonstrate Basic, Advancing or Deep understanding.
The units covered in each year group are as follows:
| Milestone 1 | |
| Year Group | Unit |
| Year 1 | Gunpowder Plot |
| Neil Armstrong | |
| Christopher Columbus | |
| The Moon Landing | |
| Printing Press | |
| Tim Berners Lee | |
| Year 2 | The First World War |
| Great Fire of London | |
| Florence Nightingale | |
| Mary Seacole | |
| Milestone 2 | |
| Year Group | Unit |
| Year 3 | Ancient Egypt |
| Stone Age | |
| Bronze Age | |
| Iron Age | |
| Year 4 | The Roman Empire |
| Anglo Saxons | |
| Vikings | |
| Milestone 3 | |
| Year Group | Unit |
| Year 5 | The Tudors |
| The Maya | |
| The Victorian Era | |
| Year 6 | The Second World war |
| The Ancient Greeks | |
Key documents and references
- KS1 Curriculum Map
- KS2 Curriculum Map
- National Curriculum Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2,
- The Essentials Curriculum.
Visit a curriculum subject page by clicking the link listed below:
English Mathematics Science Computing Physical Education Music History Geography Spanish Design and Technology Art and Design Religious Education