HUMANITIES CURRICULUM

Curriculum Statement for Geography

Intent

• We have designed our curriculum by considering the key concepts and skills of geographical enquiry, along with specific subject knowledge that we want pupils to learn and be able to develop.
• Staff have structured and sequenced topics across a whole school plan to ensure clear progression.
• They have been placed in specific year groups so that children are able to build on the skills, which they have developed in the previous year groups.
• Our planning overviews highlight prior theme and knowledge links for teachers, as well as children’s future learning.
• We have been keen to include local area lessons across school so that children are able to learn about geography in the area they live in.
• We have included a broad range of engaging geography topics, matched to the age and interests of our children.

Implementation

• Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong.
• Every geography topic is focused around a key question, which develops children’s understanding of causation and impact and provides a focus for that specific topic.
• Teachers plan a wide range of activities in their teaching, whilst using opportunities to develop pupils’ enquiry skills.
• Lessons are engaging and high quality books are used as stimulus and further learning opportunities.
• Key vocabulary is identified and reinforced throughout lessons and on all geography displays.
• Trips and experiences are planned for our topics to excite and engage the children and support their understanding of concepts and retention of knowledge.
• Children begin every topic knowing 5 key facts and they build on these facts throughout the topic so that they are able to complete a bank of additional facts at the end of each topic.
• Teachers engage and reinforce children’s prior knowledge at the start of each topic and lesson.
• Each unit of work begins with a world map to anchor children’s understanding of where they are in the world, every class identifies and labels: oceans, continents, Equator, UK and Rochdale; Year 4 – Year 6 also label: poles and Tropics.
• Every class begin each geography unit by taking home a knowledge organiser, which they are able to share with parents/carers.

 Impact

• Children have retained and embedded a body of knowledge, within which they begin to make connections, understand the impact of geographical themes and apply their knowledge.
• They have developed enquiry skills which they can use and apply.
• They have developed an interest and curiosity in geography, which they can build on at home, continue in their reading and take into the next stage of their learning and they remember, with enjoyment, the experiences they have had throughout their primary education.
• Our children have a strong understanding of their local area and have built a bank of knowledge about their locality.

What our children say about their learning in geography:-

Aleen Y4 - The thing about Geography is, you can learn more about the world - including countries and continents.

Arlo Y1 - I enjoy learning about where places are on a map. 

Emmett Y5 - I like finding where countries are because I don't know all of them yet but I can't wait to find more of them on a map and learn facts about them. 

Evie Y2 - I really liked our fieldwork project because we were able to make a tally chart to show how much litter we had found in our park! There is definitely a litter problem in our park - we did lots of litter picking! 

Curriculum Statement for History

Intent

• We have designed our curriculum by considering the key concepts and skills of historical enquiry, along with specific subject knowledge that we want pupils to learn and be able to develop.
• Staff have structured and sequenced topics across a whole school plan to ensure clear progression.
• They have been placed in specific year groups so that children are able to build on the skills, which they have developed in the previous year groups.
• Our planning overviews highlight prior theme and knowledge links for teachers, as well as children’s future learning.
• We have been keen to include local area topics / lessons across school so that children are able to learn about history in the area they live in.
• Our local area is included as a history topic in Year 3 and Year 5, with aspects running through EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2.
• We have included a broad range of engaging periods of history topics, matched to the age and interests of our children.

Implementation

• Teachers’ subject knowledge is strong.
• Every history topic is focused around a key question, which develops children’s understanding of causation and impact and provides a focus for that specific topic.
• Teachers plan a wide range of activities in their teaching, whilst using opportunities to develop pupils’ enquiry skills.
• Lessons are engaging and high quality books are used as stimulus and further learning opportunities.
• Key vocabulary is identified and reinforced throughout lessons and on all history displays.
• Trips, experiences and visitors are planned for our topics to excite and engage the children and support their understanding of concepts and retention of knowledge.
• Each class has a timeline, which they build and add to when they introduce a new history topic, allowing children to recognise and remember significant times and events, which they have learnt in previous years.
• Children begin every topic knowing 5 key facts and they build on these facts throughout the topic so that they are able to complete a bank of additional facts at the end of each topic.
• Teachers engage and reinforce children’s prior knowledge at the start of each topic and lesson.
• Every class begin each history unit by taking home a knowledge organiser, which they are able to share with parents/carers.

 Impact

•  Children have retained and embedded a body of knowledge, within which they begin to make connections and understand the impact of and between historical periods.
• They have developed enquiry skills which they can use and apply.
• Children have developed an understanding of how historians study the past.
• They have developed an interest and curiosity in history, which they can build on at home, continue in their reading and take into the next stage of their learning and they remember, with enjoyment, the experiences and visits they have had throughout their primary education.
• Our children have a strong understanding of their local area and have built a bank of knowledge about their locality.
• Children have developed a sense of chronology through every year group after building and using timelines.

 What our children say about their learning in history:-

Olivia Y2 - I really enjoy building our timeline when we start a new history topic because we get to learn about the order that different events have happened in. 

Jasper Y2 - I really enjoyed learning about when aeroplanes were invented because we also got to learn about the Wright Brothers, who invented the first plane. 

Ollie Y3 - I enjoyed hearing Martin Luther King's 'I had a dream' speech in our Black History work because we got to write our own speech! 

 Ava-Mai Y4 - I like learning about the past because it is interesting - we get to compare life from the past to life now! 

 Aleen Y4 - I like learning about the past because it can help you to make better decisions in the future.