At Paddox, we want children to have a full exposure to the different periods of History. Throughout the primary phase, the children are exposed to the different periods through discrete History lessons.
Through this, we want the children to develop curious, questioning minds that are inquisitive about the events that happened in Britain and the wider world.
In lessons, children have the opportunity to think critically and are empowered to make their own judgements. Further to this, we want children at Paddox to develop a deeper understanding of other people’s lives through our Golden Thread of Global Citizenship.
The study of history engages students in investigating past events and people to help them understand their lives today and become informed citizens. It develops critical thinking skills, allowing pupils to discern between bias, fact and opinion. Our school curriculum for history is designed to be aspirational, providing opportunities for students to achieve success through a progressive scheme of work with clear objectives. It is logical and balanced, aligning with the National Curriculum and covering a range of topics from British history to ancient civilizations. The curriculum is chronologically sequenced for deeper understanding, includes relevant inquiries beyond 1066, and progressively increases in complexity from Years 1 to 6. It builds upon the Early Years Foundation Stage and is inclusive, ensuring all students, regardless of learning needs, receive the same curriculum with necessary differentiation.
We adopt an enquiry-focused approach to history, fostering pupils as young historians who build knowledge and critical thinking skills while using specialized vocabulary and concepts. Our curriculum is structured around big questions related to relevant historical topics, ensuring it is knowledge-rich rather than content-heavy, which allows for mastery of critical thinking and challenging outcomes. We emphasize immersive learning, providing time and space for pupils to acquire knowledge, develop concepts, and understand their significance. Our interactive and practical teaching methods encourage independent, paired, and group work, utilizing contemporary historical evidence such as narratives, artefacts, and films for analysis. Pupils record their work through various differentiated methods, ensuring knowledge retention and progression year after year. Each historical enquiry’s scheme of work outlines objectives and outcomes, using ancillary questions to build upon knowledge in each lesson. We also incorporate local history investigations, allowing pupils to engage with significant people, places, and events outside the classroom.
Each enquiry in our history program establishes clear objectives and outcomes for pupils regarding knowledge, understanding, and skill acquisition, along with various assessment methods for teachers to gauge achievement. We assess pupils using diverse sources, including discussions, observations, practical activities, and different writing genres, which helps teachers build an understanding of each pupil’s knowledge and plan future learning. Instead of making summative judgements on individual pieces of work, we focus on the overall progress of each pupil. At the end of each year, we make a summative judgement on pupil achievement against the subject learning goals, determining whether they have met, exceeded, or are still working towards these goals based on teacher insights from the previous terms.