Moor Allerton Hall Primary School

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History at Moor Allerton Hall 

MAHPs History Intent                                                  

Appreciating the Past

Our aim at Moor Allerton Hall is to encourage children to develop an appreciation and understanding of the past, evaluating a range of primary and secondary sources and providing wider experiences to make learning both memorable and exciting whilst nurturing their creativity. Our children will be able to explain clearly how these sources give us an insight about how people around the world used to live and how these interpretations may differ. Children will be taught to make links between these areas of learning that can reflect on the past and make meaningful links to the present day. Through this impact, we aim to develop engaged children, who understand the skills involved in being a historian and who have a developed knowledge of British history and selected areas of history outside of our country. The world our children live in (local, national and global) has been shaped by the past and so they cannot really understand their world without knowing about the past.

Skills and Knowledge

Our history curriculum has been designed to cover all the skills, knowledge and understanding set out in the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum states that ‘a high-quality history education will help children gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire children’s curiosity to know more about the past.’

To ensure that children develop a secure knowledge that they can build on, our History curriculum is organized into a progression model that outlines the skills, knowledge and vocabulary to be taught in a sequentially coherent way. Chronological understanding; historical understanding; historical enquiry; interpretations of history; organisation and communication are all mapped out to ensure that children build on secure prior knowledge.

Cross Curriculum

History is innately cross-curricular and especially good for supporting the development of literacy skills. History at Moor Allerton Hall enables children to develop key knowledge and skills that are transferable and consistently interconnected to other curriculum areas, and which can and are used to promote their learning muscles, love of learning and cultural development.

Curriculum Organisation

When covering each of these strands, the content is carefully organised by each year group through a long term plan. Content knowledge, vocabulary, skills, texts and tasks are planned for at a greater level of detail in the medium-term plan. History is delivered through subject specific teaching organised into termly short-term plans (developed as slideshows) under a key theme. Meaningful links with other subjects are made to strengthen connections and understanding for children. Moor Allerton Hall’s history units have been developed to help children appreciate their own identity, cultural backgrounds, and diversity. This includes history of our local area as well as ensuring that children understand the process of change over time and significant developments from this.

Implementing History at MAHPs                               

Professional Development of Teachers

Subject coordinators knowledge is developed through history courses and then this learning is feedback and key take are implemented across school. Continue Professional Development in history also involves the periodic use of outside visitors and speakers who are experts in the field of history. As well as this, teachers have an opportunity to practice, rehearse and revise their subject knowledge by creating History Knowledge Sheets. These are information sheets researched and created by the teachers to support their understanding of the particular historic time period they will deliver.

History across the School

History at Moor Allerton Hall is taught in the Spring and the beginning of the Summer term, but is consistently interconnected with other subjects throughout the year, so that children can achieve depth in their learning. In the Summer term, our history units lead into creative themed units. For example, our Year 3  ‘Technology over Time’ leads into robot creation and design, based on the history lesson on robots. Quality historical texts are used throughout the school in both our writing and our reading.

Planning History

Teachers plan lessons for their class using our Progression of Knowledge Grids, which have all the essential knowledge they will need for a specific topic. The progression document ensures the curriculum is covered and the skills/knowledge taught is progressive from year group to year group. Key vocabulary is embedded throughout lessons through historical texts, knowledge organisers and low stake quizzing. Knowledge Organisers are created by teachers for the children. These outline knowledge, vocabulary and time lines that all children will master and apply in lessons. Low stake quizzes are used regularly in lessons to support learners’ ability to block learning and increase space in the working memory. This not only helps to make learning memorable but also engaging, interesting and fun for the childrens. Teachers also include topic specific reading in their lessons which enables children to have a deeper understanding of their upcoming learning.

All lessons will start by revisiting prior knowledge. This will be scaffolded to support children to recall previous learning and make important connections between key facts. Staff will model explicitly the subject-specific vocabulary, knowledge and skills relevant to the learning to allow them to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.

Building a love for History

Educational trips and activities at Moor Allerton Hall provide a variety of opportunities for history learning inside and outside the classroom. At the start of every topic, we have a ‘Big Bang’ where each year group plans engaging activities linked to the forthcoming history topic. This launches the children into that particular history topic. These activities are guided by the children’s interests and promote their love for learning. Educational visits are another opportunity for the teachers to plan for additional history learning outside the classroom. At Moor Allerton Hall, the children have many opportunities to experience history on educational visits. The children explore the local area including visiting Armley Mills when studying the Victorians, becoming a Roman recruit for the day at Murton Park and investigat Kirkgate market place in Leeds city centre for our ‘This is Leeds’ topic.

Measuring the Impact of our History Curriculum        

How do we know our children are better historians?

Within history, we strive to create a supportive and collaborative ethos for learning by providing investigative and enquiry-based learning opportunities. Emphasis is placed on promoting children’s love for learning whilst using their learning muscles to progress their historical knowledge.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

Teacher Assessment

Teachers will consistently but discreetly assess children throughout their lessons taught through oral and written work and low stake quizzes. High levels of children enjoyment and engagement are also monitored to ensure learning is interesting and memorable for the children.

Pre and Post Assessment

Existing knowledge is checked at the beginning of each topic, as part of the Pre and Post assessment strategy. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children’s starting points and that it takes account of children voice, incorporating children’s interests. Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with the school’s commitment to inclusion. At the end of each topic, post assessments are completed by the children and rigorously checked by the teacher.

Knowledge Development

From the pre and post assessment, the children are guided to their areas of development and are able to consolidate their understanding through topic related projects based on prior knowledge and assessment outcomes.

Pupil Voice

Informally interviewing the children about their learning enables us to discover whether learning knowledge has stuck and if they are enjoying the learning of their history topic.

Our history curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression of knowledge, skills, and vocabulary. Children will deepen their understanding, confidently be able to discuss their learning with subject specific vocabulary and recall their learning over time.

By the end of Year 6, we want our children to leave our school with a range of positive history experiences and skills. They will: enjoy history; understand why it is an important subject to study; have a developed sense of chronology; have a sound knowledge of the areas in the national curriculum; understand historical concepts such as change and continuity; have a range of historical skills such as enquiry, examination and analysis of evidence and clear communication of findings and an understanding of the contribution that people from diverse backgrounds, events and eras have made on our way of life now.

MAHPs History Curriculum Overview             

MAHPs History Medium Term Plans

Our medium term plans give our teachers indepth information to help plan out a sequence of skills and knowledge over a unit of work. These documents show what objectives they have to follow to get the correct coverage and helpful ideas for reading, activities and what type of writing they need to create.

MAHPs History Progression

These History progression document shows how vocabulary, skills and knowledge develops and progresses from EYFS all the way to Year 6. This allows our teachers to ensure they are teaching the correct objectives at the right time and they are also able to revisit information to help the children activate their prior knowledge.