Our intent:

At SEJ, we believe that through studying about historical eras, we gain a better understanding of life today and what may come in the future. We aim to build empathy and understanding for the differences that our ancestors experienced, and by making connections to the past, we can appreciate how our lives are now greatly improved today, helping us to become better citizens of the future who appreciate the wealth of diversity around us.

Please click here to view our long-term history overview.

Our way:

Using the National Curriculum objectives, our curriculum is designed to immerse the children in a variety of historical eras. Through a visiting interactive historical workshop, each year group gets to experience life during a historical era linked to their areas of study, such as stepping into the Stone Age (Y3), experiencing the life of Ancient Egypt (Y4), living the life of a Tudor during the reign of King Henry VIII (Y5) or discovering life of WW2 Britain (Y6).

Each history-driven project begins and ends with a ‘BIG Question’ to spark an interest and engage the children in the learning that is to follow. The proceeding series of lessons are tailored to enable the children to answer the ‘BIG Question’, which forms part of their assessment opportunity at the end of the project.

Each history-led project includes 'Target' and 'Bonus' memories. Target memories are the key knowledge about their historical area of study that we want all children to acquire. 'Bonus' memories are a wider, more deep-set knowledge base that may indicate a basis for greater depth understanding. Similarly, each project consists of 'Target' and 'Bonus' vocabulary, which go hand in hand with our target and bonus memories.

Target vocabulary guides the understanding of key historical vocabulary that we want all children to acquire within a project, whilst acquisition and application of bonus vocabulary may demonstrate a greater depth level of knowledge about a project. It is an integral part of lessons, ensuring that the history curriculum is vocabulary-rich. The children are encouraged to use subject-specific vocabulary in their discussions and written work. Children are also encouraged to include target and bonus memories and vocabulary in their BIG Question answers as part of their assessment opportunity at the end of their project.

Our history lessons are varied to incorporate historical skills, such as chronology, enquiry, analysis and interpretation. Simultaneously, through proposing open-ended questions during our historical projects, we seek to build an enquiring mind amongst children. This enables them to reach conclusions, make comparisons and identify differences about the world around them. By the end of a history-led project, the children will possess strong knowledge of our 'Target' memories for their project and will be able to answer the ‘BIG Question’ through written explanations, diagrams or presentations.

Every classroom has a project board, which highlights the historical era being studied. This may include key vocabulary and facts; visual aids and examples of children’s work; and is built upon as a ‘live’ working wall with each taught session. Each project is organised in the same manner within the children’s books. It often begins with an Knowledge Organiser which provides keywords and visual prompts; a 'Brain Dump' page; a series of lessons; and culminates in the children answering the ‘BIG Question’.

The Brain Dump is a double-page spread where the children are able to recall and reflect on their previous learning. Here, they may write definitions, draw diagrams or complete short tasks to assist in consolidating their understanding. Further recall and retrieval practice of these skills are completed during early morning challenges.

Each history project concludes with the children answering the ‘BIG Question.’ This open-ended question requires the children to apply the knowledge that they have learnt throughout the project. They may draw upon the information on their Brain Dump, as well as refer back to their lessons to enable them to form a detailed response to the question.

Children are able to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through written pieces that describe, compare and analyse the civilisations studied. These written responses, combined with evidence from weekly lessons, help to inform the summative judgements made by the teacher at the end of each term.

In addition to the historical project studied, at SEJ we hold an annual History Festival. Over the course of a two-week period, the children learn about a further period in history, which may include application of writing skills, developing reading skills when researching, reading historical texts, handling artefacts and expressing understanding through artwork. Such strategies all help to further embed the children’s understanding of the historical period studied.

During our History Festival Showcase, children from each year group are given the opportunity to meet with a child from another year group, in order to share their learning, ask questions and promote discussion. This enables all children to recall their learning from our History Festival, as well as have the opportunity to improve their confidence and enhance their oracy and communication skills.

In order to provide children with opportunities to retain the knowledge that they have learnt and consolidated, we run ‘Innovation Fridays.’  When linked to history, this is an opportunity for children across the whole school to reflect, revisit prior learning and celebrate their understanding through activities designed and planned for the children to display their skills. During the event, the children might construct, perform or present what they have learnt from a previous history project – for example, creating a board game to be played in an Anderson shelter during WW2.