Inquisitive, Resilient, Independent    

At Anglesey, we are a vibrant and nurturing school community, where children are given the skills to become, inquisitive, resilient, independent learners.    

Our curriculum provides a range of creative, challenging and inspiring experiences for all.  This equips our children with the life skills to be happy, flourish and be successful…Today, tomorrow and in the future    

HISTORY INTENT   

 At Anglesey we want children’s curiosity to be fired to ask questions and find out more about the past and how this has shaped Britain and the wider world. Our framework for History is mostly chronological to enable children to make sense of the new knowledge they acquire. This allows them to understand the process of change, to see how we arrived at where we are today and make sense of the present. It also gives children confidence if they are able to build on knowledge and skills learned. Sometimes however, to fit in better with our whole curriculum we have made changes. For example, Year 2 have decided to explore the history of The Vikings as this has fired their imaginations.

History at Anglesey helps pupils to construct arguments and support them to become analytical citizens who can question human motivation and society with skill and confidence both in school and on educational visits.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND VALUES     

INQUISITIVE    

An inquisitive learner has a thirst for learning and wants to discover as much as they can about the world by asking questions.    

RESILIENT    

A resilient learner can bounce back from challenges and problems, but also has the capacity to adapt in the face of challenging circumstances, whilst maintaining a stable mental wellbeing.    

INDEPENDENT    

An independent learner takes responsibility for their own learning. They are self-motivated and accept that frustration in the present is worthwhile to achieve future success. They take initiative and are good problem solvers.    

Pupils develop Inquisitiveness in HISTORY by:   

• Using websites such as Padlet, which is basically interactive post it notes where children can add any questions to the post it notes that they want answering during the topics. They are reviewed in most lessons on the interactive white board. 
• Experiences during educational visits for example the Black Country Living Museum history detectives trail - An historical enquiry into the lives of real children who lived in the Black Country. The children follow the lives of 4 children who lived during this time period and must ask questions to find out about their lives. 
• Finding out about important people and places in the local area to find out why things are as they are now e.g. Matthew Boulton’s influence in Handsworth.
• Exploring artefacts e.g. bringing in old items to generate discussion about past / present / future (e.g. old phone, camera, video, etc)  

• Exploring old photos of the past e.g. their baby / family pictures 
• exploring the symbols and  stories e.g. the poppy as a symbol of remembrance of the past 
• Learning journals – looking through them at different stages throughout the year to talk about past / present achievements and experiences e.g. from Nursery to the start of Reception and thereafter 

Pupils develop Resilience in HISTORY by:   

• Studying aspects of history where people have displayed resilience. For example, Year 5 study the Victorians and focus particularly on the resilience shown by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the problems he faced during his engineering projects. The children understood his determination and resilience to complete projects such as SS Great Britain and his time spent overcoming problems on the Great Western Railway project on the Clifton Suspension Bridge project.  Y1 study Rosa Parks and the challenges she faced during the Civil Rights movement.
• Comparison between nursery and reception i.e. key group discussions of what children weren’t able to do when we were younger but they can do now – they didn’t give up but kept trying and have learnt new skills as they have grown older e.g. dressing and feeding themselves 

Pupils develop Independence in HISTORY by:   

• Studying the importance of democracy and how that come about from the Ancient Greeks. We discussed how we demonstrate democracy in school, for example, the children independently running their own class council sessions. 
• Daily routines using a visual time table – children take responsibility for tracking the stages of the school day by taking things away when they have happened and are in the ‘past’ – we comment on the present and what is to happen later in the day 

CREATIVE, CHALLENGING AND INSPIRING EXPERIENCES     

At Anglesey, experiences are essential and in History, we aim to provide children with a variety of experiences and visits. For example, Year 5 visit the Black Country Living Museum and experience the history detectives day and Year 2 immerse themselves in a Viking activity day, dressed up as Vikings and experiencing a day in their life. Also important historical events are commemorated by either specific year groups or the whole school, for example, celebrating VE day by taking part in a ‘street party’. Bringing history to life and making it memorable is important to us, including opportunities for children to recreate history in drama or role play and learning songs about historical times and places.  

Children in Year 1 undertake a project about the Jurassic period and take on the role as archaeologists on a dig and make and dig up dinosaur salt dough ‘fossils’ and ‘bones’. They ask what are fossils? How are real fossils made? What do they help teach us about the past? 

HISTORY  IMPLEMENTATION  

 We teach the National Curriculum supported by clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensures skills are built on year on year and sequenced appropriately. History is usually taught in blocks, with each year group having two main History focussed topics and additional smaller History projects linked to the topic being taught. We mostly teach History in chronological order, but some changes have taken place, because of interest from the children and to support the wider curriculum in that year group. Children are encouraged to research, interpret evidence, including primary and secondary sources, and have the necessary skills to argue their point of view.

HISTORY IMPACT  

Each year group keeps a folder of work which clearly shows progression across the year. An additional folder is kept to show evidence of progression across the whole school from Nursery to Year 6. Year managers regularly involve groups of pupils in discussions about their  own learning, including reflecting on standards achieved against the planned outcomes. 

Children will retain prior learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning. They will be able to use the experiences gained on visits etc to support their thinking about the History topic studied.