History

The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future - Theodore Roosevelt

INTENT

At Burrington Church of England School, we are HISTORIANS!

We are passionate about the subject and want our children to love history. We believe that history makes a significant contribution to citizen education: incorporating British Values, and how Britain developed as a democratic society.

To young children, the world is an exciting and interesting place. They are inquisitive and ask questions about the world around them. Burrington School will support them in developing the skills to use appropriate evidence to answer those questions, encourage their curiosity by stimulating their interest and understanding about the lives of people who lived in the past, and help them to appreciate how events of the past have shaped our present and may influence our future.

The history curriculum at Burrington makes full use of resources within the immediate and wider local area enabling children to develop a deep understanding of the history of their locality. It is designed to inspire pupils’ curiosity about the past and what we can learn from it. Pupils will gain clear knowledge and understanding of their world and the chronology of events that have led us to where we are at today.

History curriculum is developed in accordance with the National Curriculum for History and enriched by the Lighthouse School Partnership’s (LSP) vertical concepts – Trade and Settlement; Empires and Civilisations; Invasion, Migration and Peace and Technology and Innovation – which provide thematic coherence across year groups and mixed-age cycles.

Pupils at Burrington develop substantive knowledge by learning key historical facts, events, people, and timelines—such as the Great Fire of London, Ancient Egypt, and World War II. This builds their understanding of what happened and when. Alongside this, they cultivate disciplinary skills by engaging in historical enquiry: asking questions, analysing sources, evaluating evidence, and constructing arguments. These skills help them think like historians, interpreting the past rather than just recalling it.

The history curriculum at Burrington is carefully planned and structured to ensure that current learning is linked to previous learning, and ensures a progression of skills development for each year group.

In line with the National Curriculum 2014, Burrington aims to ensure that all pupils:

Develop an interest in the past and an appreciation of human achievements and inspirations;
Are encouraged to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement;
Develop an understanding of the concepts of time and chronology;
Understand how the past is different to the present, and that the people of other times and places may have had different values and attitudes from our own;
Understand that events often have a multiplicity of causes and that historical explanation is provisional, always retractable and sometimes controversial.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ guidance which aims for all children in Foundation Stage to have an ‘Understanding of the World' by the end of the academic year.

In addition to the LSP scheme of History units, Burrington delivers carefully planned whole-school lessons that mark significant historical events and themes. These include Remembrance Week and Black History, which are taught across all year groups to deepen pupils’ understanding of identity, legacy, and social change. In UKS2, pupils also engage with Holocaust Memorial Day through sensitive and age-appropriate enquiry, encouraging reflection on human rights, resilience, and the importance of remembrance. These lessons enrich the curriculum and ensure pupils encounter diverse narratives and global perspectives.

Quality reading texts are carefully selected to embed cultural and historical understanding, enriching pupils’ knowledge of diverse time periods, perspectives, and experiences while deepening engagement with key historical themes.

Our passion is inspire children to consider a future career in an area where history plays a key role.

IMPLEMENTATION

All units within the curriculum are planned around an enquiry question – such as “How did experiences of people differ during WW2?” that pupils will answer by the end of the unit of work as a result of direct instruction, guided practice and independent application. All lessons have been intentionally chosen and sequenced to support pupils to develop a rich schema within the unit being taught and the overall concept over time. This means that sequences of learning are carefully designed to ensure that the identified knowledge is focused within the historical concept being taught and stops us from teaching a surface level fact file on the Romans or teaching a meaningless collection of facts about holidays in the past.

The aim of every unit within our history curriculum is to produce a final outcome that answers the enquiry question. This final piece enables pupils to showcase what they know and have learnt through a unit of work, using their own words. Final outcomes may be: a discussion or debate, a presentation or a written outcome.

Although history will not always be taught and learned in a chronological sequence, by the end of Year 6, children will have a chronological understanding of British history from the Stone Age to the present day. The will be able to draw comparisons and make connections between different time periods and their own lives. Interlinked with this are studies of world history, such as the ancient civilisations of Greece and the Egyptians.

History is taught in blocks throughout the year, so that children achieve depth in their learning. Substantive and disciplinary key skills have been identified for each topic and consideration has been given to ensure progression across topics, throughout each year group, and across the school as a whole. At Burrington, we ensure that children have complete coverage of the National Curriculum, and use a rolling 2-year curriculum to reflect mixed-age classes.

At Burrington Primary School, our pedagogical approach is based on Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. All lessons in the history curriculum are designed to be taught using this approach because when skillfully applied this will ensure that every pupil receives high quality, evidence informed teaching in every lesson, every day. Teachers are expected to adapt teaching materials to match the learning needs of their cohort, this includes scaffolding to support and stretch and challenge for deeper thinkers.

At Burrington, every History lesson begins with a 5-10 minutes (including feedback) ‘Do Now’ activity. This is a retrieval practice starter based on the current and previous units of work. The principle of this is based on practicing what we did yesterday, earlier this week, last week and in the last unit.

Pupils complete these activities on whiteboards before moving on to the main session.

Every unit of work has a pupil knowledge organiser, this is one of the resources which teachers use deliberately with pupils as part of the approach to practice and retrieval. It is recommended that the knowledge organiser is stuck into the history book at the beginning of a unit. These demarcates the beginning of the unit and means it is an accessible document for pupils during the unit. Knowledge organisers contain key information that children should have learnt by the end of a learning sequence, and contain key images; therefore, they act as a tool in supporting pupils to retain and retrieve knowledge and build a secure schema. They are designed to be quizzable (to build connections across knowledge rather than facts in isolation) and should be used with pupils during the unit particularly as part of ‘Do Now’s’ and during assessments at the end of the unit.

Although history is strongly rooted in written and spoken language, information technology is a very useful tool for the historian. It can be used to store, retrieve and analyse information, and for word processing.

All classes have class computers, interactive whiteboards with

access to the Internet, and opportunities to use laptops and iPads.

It is always advisable to base learning on first-hand experience, and teachers are encouraged to focus attention on the opportunities available in the local area, exploring a world ‘beyond the classroom’. Trips and visitors are carefully planned.

IMPACT

There is no statutory teacher assessment in KS1 and KS2 for History.

However, assessment should check that curriculum content is learnt and committed to long-term memory. Pupils should be able to demonstrate that they know more, remember more and are able to do more as a result of the explicit teaching they have encountered. Teachers should use formative and summative assessment to build an understanding of pupil’s prior knowledge and performance to help draw out common misconceptions or gaps which can be addressed in future curriculum planning and delivery.

Regular formative Assessment:

Throughout units it is essential that teachers regularly check for understanding using a range of strategies. This enables teachers to identify gaps in pupils knowledge and understanding so they can respond in an appropriate way to secure achievement of core concepts, knowledge and skills. Lessons across units have been intentionally designed so that:

pupils engage in regular low stakes testing of knowledge and deliberate practise of skills taught to date. This takes place at the beginning of each lesson through ‘Do Now’ tasks. These tasks have been crafted so that pupils retrieve knowledge from previous lessons and units; as a result, knowledge is more likely to embed in pupils long-term memory.
teachers use a variety of ways to make sure that pupils are keeping up with the learning through opportunities for cold calling, think, pair, share, hinge questions and white board work etc. Teachers use the information gained to make in the moment decisions about next steps so that learning sequences can be adapted appropriately.
pupils engage in ‘exit tickets’ based on knowledge gained during the session. This is another way to engage in low stakes quizzes or to make links in learning within and across sessions.

Summative assessment:

In history, pupils work to produce a final outcome which allows them to demonstrate to what extent they have achieved the specified knowledge and skills set out in the medium term plan for the unit.

At the end of each session teachers review learning including outcomes produced by individuals, groups and the class as a whole and use this information to inform future sessions to ensure that pupils stay ‘on track’ throughout the unit. Information gained is recorded using the assessment tracking grid.

See below for example:

/docs/History/KS1_Assessment_in_History.docx

INSPIRATION

At Burrington, we plan History WOW days to inspire children and engage them with the subject. Not only do WOW days enable children to develop their History skills and knowledge, but also allow them to have fun whilst learning in a different way! These may take the form of workshops, trips to museums, acting workshops, dress up days, etc.

Burrington also encourage visits by individuals and organisations that can provide enrichment to support core curriculum topics and inspire the children’s imagination, such as authors, Farmlink, and members of the public, e.g. Mr Hanson who did Shackleton’s tour of South Georgia and presented his photos.

We also plan numerous trips to explore our local area, such as: Mendip Hills (Roman fort and WW2 Folly), Bristol (SS Great Britain and Egyptian workshop), Bath (Roman settlement), Weston-super-Mare (Victorian and Anglo-Saxon workshop). All UKS2 children visit London (Houses of Parliament and other museums).

In KS2, at the end of term, the whole school, parents, and members of the community (such as St Monicas) are invited to see what the children have learnt. This might be showcased as a performance (such as WW2 dances and poetry) or a museum where children display their work and 'teach' others.

Burrington Enrichment Programme ensures that all children participate in British Traditions, such as: Maypole, country dancing, Jubilee Picnic, King's Coronation, VE celebrations etc.

Policy and other important History Documents

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows the ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ gu