Interactive Bar
Al-Furqan Primary School
The Key to Success
History
At Al-Furqan Primary School the teaching and learning of History focuses on enabling children to think as historians. We live in the society that has been shaped by significant events and people of the past. It is important for children to understand cultural, national and international History as a way of creating a shared identity and interconnections. An engaging and active History curriculum can help to raise cultural capital and develop connections through people and events in different places and different times.
In line with the National Curriculum, we contextualize our planning and teaching to construct a curriculum that is broad and ambitious that is designed to give all pupils, including SEN, the knowledge and skills to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence. Our History curriculum design, planning and resources are bespoke and tailored to the needs of our children. In addition, our teachers have access to Historical Association to support the delivery of our History curriculum.
Substantive and disciplinary concepts are carefully blended through planning, teaching and enrichment activities to ensure pupils make progress through our curriculum. In particular, the planning in school ensures that all taught units are in line with our concept-drive curriculum. Although a unit may have a particular focus, the learning progress is further built on these substantive concepts; Migration, Economics, Achievements and legacy, Governance, Settlements and Society and Culture. We recognise that these substantive concepts (also known as ‘golden threads’) will strengthen the schema as the basis of all historical knowledge in our History curriculum.
Our History Curriculum
At Al Furqan Primary, we follow the ‘Understanding the World’ programme from the Statutory Framework for EYFS and the National Curriculum for History as a basis for its content and framework. We aim for pupils to leave EYFS, KS1 and KS2 with an understanding of what has gone before them and how it impacts on life today – how we learn from the past and how the past has shaped things as they are today.
In Reception, History is taught under the umbrella of ‘Understanding of the World’. This involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places and time.
During Key Stage 1, children begin to develop an awareness of chronological events from their own past and their families past using common words and phrases relating to the passing of time. They start to know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods. Children are taught to identify changes within living memory, exploring what has changed within living memory and what this subsequently reveals about changes in national life. Children also investigate events beyond living memory, to develop a growing sense of chronology and awareness of time and changes over time. We will also learn about significant individuals that have made an impact on a local, national and international scale, with children exploring their similarity, differences and significance as they progress.
Throughout Key Stage 2, children continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
For British history, children start Lower Key Stage 2 focussing on early British History beginning with changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. They will subsequently learn about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain, as well as Britain’s settlement by the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. In Upper Key Stage 2, children study the impact of the Industrial revolution, World War II and Windrush migration on a national and local scale, showing how several aspects of national history are reflected in our locality.
For world history, children start Lower Key Stage 2 focussing on the achievements of the earliest civilisations such as; Ancient Sumer, the Indus Valley and the Shang Dynasty of Ancient China. With this growing knowledge children will study Ancient Egypt in-depth to deepen their understanding of early civilisations. In Upper Key Stage 2, children’s study of ancient civilisations will be extended by investigation of Ancient Greece, where children will study Greek life, the major achievements of this society and its influence on the Western world. To further complement children’s understanding of society, culture and civilisation children will have the opportunity to study a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history, using early Islamic civilisation as the context of this comparison
Substantive and Disciplinary Concepts
LONG TERM CURRICULUM OVERVIEW 2021-2022 | ||||||
Year | Autumn 1.1 | Autumn 1.2 | Spring 2.1 | Spring 2.2 | Summer 3.1 | Summer 3.2 |
EYFS | Our families: How have I changed? | Bonfire night and Remembrance day | Transport and Travel | Farming in the past | Celebrations (Homes and houses) |
|
1 |
| Toys |
| Remarkable People: Cadbury Brothers |
| The Great Fire of London
|
2 |
| Kings and Queens |
| Explorers: Ibn Battuta and Robert Falcon Scott |
| Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee |
3 |
| Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age |
|
| Early Civilisations | The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain |
4 |
| Anglo Saxon Invasion & Settlement | Anglo-Saxon and Viking Conflict |
| Ancient Egypt |
|
5 |
| The Legacy of Ancient Greece |
| Industrial Revolution |
| Local History Study
|
6 |
| The Golden Age of Islam | World War 2 |
|
| Migration: Windrush
|