History Vision:
At Priory CE Academy, we provide a History curriculum that is inclusive, knowledge-rich, and designed to inspire curiosity and foster a lifelong interest in the past. Our aim is to equip children with the skills and understanding needed to become informed, confident individuals who can contribute positively to their communities and aspire to meaningful futures.
Our curriculum fully implements the National Curriculum, ensuring comprehensive coverage and clear progression. It is designed to be accessible to all, with high expectations for every pupil, and adaptations made only when absolutely necessary to meet significant learning needs. Recognising the unique backgrounds of our pupils, we provide a bespoke programme that is relevant, engaging, and enriched with opportunities to broaden horizons. Our use of the ‘Grammarsaurus 3D Curriculum’ ensures consistency while allowing flexibility to meet the specific needs of each class.
The History curriculum at Priory forms part of our 3D curriculum, revisiting key skills and knowledge progressively across year groups to ensure learning is embedded. Digital literacy plays a key role in enhancing understanding, with pupils using technology to explore historical sources, research key events, and present their learning creatively. By integrating digital tools, pupils develop skills that are essential for the modern world.
Children also have opportunities to develop their spiritual pathways by reflecting on the lives of people from different times and cultures, considering moral and ethical questions raised by historical events, and exploring how these have shaped our world. Visits and visitors further enrich the curriculum, offering pupils first-hand experiences that bring history to life and deepen their understanding.
Our History curriculum is carefully sequenced to revisit and build upon key themes, such as trade, migration, settlement, rebellion, monarchy, and empire. Pupils develop a strong historical vocabulary, which grows as they progress, enabling them to articulate their ideas and analyse historical concepts with confidence. The curriculum is designed to ensure that knowledge is retained over time, with strategies such as cumulative assessments and low-stakes quizzes supporting long-term learning.
Through a wide variety of experiences, children are encouraged to see the relevance of history to their future. Exploring historical contexts and their links to modern careers, we inspire pupils to see themselves as future citizens, with the potential to lead and make an impact. By fostering aspirations, we prepare pupils not only for academic success but also for their roles in shaping society.
By providing an engaging, inclusive, and progressive History curriculum, enriched by digital literacy and real-world experiences, we aim to develop inquisitive minds and ambitious learners. At Priory CE Academy, we are committed to preparing our pupils for the future while enabling them to make meaningful connections to the past.
Inclusion and access. Our intent applies to every pupil, including those learning in The Hive. We keep the ambition the same for all and adapt the route to it, so pupils can access, remember and use core historical knowledge. Where materials we use (e.g., Grammarsaurus) feel dense, teachers may simplify slides/resources while preserving the key knowledge.
Cross Curricular links with History
The skills and knowledge the children use in History complement those in the rest of the curriculum. These are just some of the ways that History links to other areas of their study:
Projects within these subjects link to learning from the curriculum. They will often link to previous year groups learning to reignite it and to help it stick.
1:1 iPads are used to support learning in all History lessons. They can use the iPads to research and experience a number of sources and artefacts (APPS and websites); they can also use them to present their work in engaging ways.
During most history units, children will need to understand where in the world events happened or civilisations lived (and the impact they had). Maps are often used to illustrate this, and through comparison with modern day maps, look how the world has changed.
Chronology is covered in all history units which links with timelines and when things happened.
Main texts will be studied within English sessions that follow the History themes covered. Comprehension Crushers will also cover and recap key historical content from current and previous year groups. Reading and research is vital within the majority of history lessons.
Children learn about key scientists and scientific discoveries throughout history (as well as their impact upon the world).
In each year group, children produce extended pieces of writing based upon the historical texts that they have studied.